Licensing Hours

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 16

Licensing Hours

Sir, —The licensed trade’s letter to the Minister of Justice requesting that the referendum on closing hours be abolished prompts a question: how. hungry can the liquor traders get? Two years ago. at Mr Hanan’s invitation, five trade representatives assisted three Justice Department officers in re-writing the liquor licensing laws. The new Act made further concessions to legalised drinking after. 6 p.m., and most notably for persons under 21 years. Not content with a doubling of per capita spending on liquor within 13 years, nothing will satisfy the trade but “open slather.” They wish to ignore the 75.4 per cent vote in favour of 6 p.m. closing of March, 1949, which maintains the majority outlook since • 1917. They would like us to forget that 11 p.m. and 10 p.m. closing have been tried. It took three citizens’ petitions and a mass march in Parliament to help politicians to appreciate that liquor reform is safest in the hands of voters and democratic procedures.—Yours, etc PHILLIP RAMSAY. September 29,1964.