WOMEN DRINKERS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 124, 29 May 1922, Page 8

WOMEN DRINKERS

SUPERVISION AND CONDUCT OF

HOTELS.

; During the hearing of a recent rase in the Magistrate's Court, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., strongly condemned the practice of women drinking in hotels; Regarding this matter, Police :' Inspector W. B. M'llveney informed a Post reporter that the hotelkeepers in Wellington, subject, of course, to advice from the police, had j done their : very ' best .to discourage female drinking. "As & matter of fact," he said, " out of forty-seven hotels in Wellington .there are now, only about. ..three whicli'v'will supply women with' liquor in the vicinity of the bar or even for consumption on the' premises. " The amount of ■'police supervision ;given hotels in the Wellington Licensing' District-- is ''very : considerable," he added. From a record extending over tho past three years, of constant visits made by sergeants and constables to every hotel in Wellington at all hours of the day and night, he could show very many instances where no .women at all had I been found. in the majority of ' licensed houses at times of police visitation: No: ! woman had been discovered on the premises of any hotel while the worse for. liquor. "If a woman does desire to go upon the premises'of an hotel," he said, "I know of no law to prevent her. Under the statute even women of ill-fame are permitted to enter licensed premises, so Jong as they do not habitually resort thereto, and to remain as long as is reasonably necessary for refreshment. Any respectable woman may enter an hotel, subject to the intervention of the licensee, and may remain there so long as she behaves herself." The position of hotelkeepers under the Act was clear. Unless; ■an hotel was conducted in an improper manner; and drunkenness permitted as 'well, the police had no grounds for opposiiig the renewal of a publican's license. A very great wrong would be done the majority of hotel-keepers here, he said, by any reflection upon the conduct of their^ hotels as, far as women drinking or remaining longer than was absolutely necessary for refreshment or rest 'were concerned.