Minors Obtaining Liquor

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30393, 18 March 1964, Page 1

Minors Obtaining Liquor

Concern that minors, and in particular schoolchildren, were able to obtain liquor from public sources and consume it in an uncontrolled manner was expressed by the Aranui High School board last evening.

The board was discussing a newspaper report which said four high school prefects told a public meeting in Dunedin yesterday that more than half of the sixth form pupils at Dunedin schools had easy access to large quantities of alcohol at parties. Mr D. M. Hemsley said it would be in the interest of the Aranui High School if its prefects could give a report on the matter.

The issue arose when the headmaster (Mr W. J. A. Brittenden) said he knew of a parent who had frequently been approached by teenagers in New Brighton to buy bulk beer, and although this particular person had not, he knew of others who had. It was a bad state of affairs and he hoped the board would express its concern. Mr Hemsley said, of the newspaper report, that the prefects had been bold and brave to have expressed such views. It was good that children who saw the error of their ways were prepared to say so. Broader Problem Mr L. C. Fulford said the problem concerned more than just secondary schools. It also applied to minors at universities.

The chairman, Mr G. A. Shouksmith, said it was not illegal for a minor to drink at home, but it was a parental responsibility to see that the drink was taken as part of a social occasion—not just drinking for the sake of drinking. He did not object to moderate, regulated drinking.

Mr Hemsley said this was wrong. He did not condone drinking by minors at all.

Mr Shouksmith said he would be the last person to encourage young people drinking, or obtaining beer, against the law. But there was a very different situation between a person drinking on the right sort of occasion with his family, and the “big shot out swilling drink to create an impression among his pals.”