Jugs And Glasses

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30389, 13 March 1964, Page 12

Jugs And Glasses

The relationship between the price of beer in glasses and the price in jugs suggests that hotel-keepers share the views of police witnesses rather than those of the Licensing Control Commission. The hotels, in making beer cheaper by the glass, are presumably catering for the tastes of what they believe to be the majority of their customers. Though the commission after its recent survey in the Manawatu district said hotel customers were entitled to more comfortable facilities, it noted police evidence that most preferred to drink standing in their serried ranks at the bar. By their willingness to accept a fraction less beer if they buy it by the jug, some bar patrons show their support for the commission. Their numbers are likely to grow if there is any force in the argument that bad

drinking habits among New Zealanders are the results of bad laws. If New Zealanders are really preoccupied with how much beer they can get for the least money they are not really interested in more comfortable and congenial premises. More civilised bars cost money, and if customers do not pay for them no-one will.

The process of improvement has just begun, and the licensed trade has shown no great confidence in public taste by the charges fixed for jugs. Jugs by themselves represent only the smallest advance towards the reforms sought by the commission. No doubt the commission and the licensees can learn some lessons from the degree of acceptance of the jugs before more expensive improvements are demanded and provided.