RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

RESTRICTIONS

It is a long way from the polished urbanities of a Hilton Chevron barman to the proprietor of a back country New Zealand pub—but just how far?

The contribution one country hotel owner made to the tourist trade can not be measured, but the note which follows will make it clear that it came less from a subtle service than from a blunt but engaging honesty. He kept a hotel near Wanaka, and when motorists going from Wanaka across the Crown Range to Queenstown called, they were never allowed to outstay their welcome. The proprietor, a man full of

years and wisdom, was a firm believer in a driver being free from the dangerous effects of alcohol, and would therefore allow a motorist a maximum of two glasses, average size, of beer. Noone would persuade him to sell more than that. Of course, a motorist going from Queenstown to Wanaka was allowed to stay a little longer; he had already crossed the Crown Range, and had an easy run into Wanaka. Four beers. Our own account of the proprietor’s essentially practical outlook comes from a man who motored with two friends from

Wanaka, called at the hotel, where each of them drank two glasses of beer. A request fbr a third one was refused. The proprietor was about to gather up the glasses when they said, “All right, then, we’ll see you on our way back tomorrow.” The proprietor paused. “You’ll be back through here tomorrow?” he said. They told him that they would be. “Well,” he said, leaving the glasses on the bar where they had been placed, and pointing, from glasses to customers, in turn, “Remember, that's you, and you, and you.”