CHATHAM ISLANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 54, 1 September 1945, Page 8

CHATHAM ISLANDS

ALLEGATIONS DENIED

RESIDENTS' DRINKING HABITS

Allegations of wild drinking parties which had been made concerning the Chatham Islands to the Royal Commission on Licensing were denied in a petition placed before the Commission yesterday. The petition, signed by a Justice of the Peace, three county councillors, six farmers, four fishermen, two farm managers, and 13 other Chatham Island residents, was presented to the Commission, stating that the signatories considered a report by Mr. R. Holmes. S.M., "to be inaccurate and to have given a distorted view of conditions here." Mr. F. D. Sargent, of Christchurch, representing the signatories, referred to Mr. Holmes's evidence generally and to the suggestion that "the scenes of debauchery can easily be imagined and quarrels and fights are common." Also, exception was taken to Mr. Holmes's statement that "the concensus of opinion is that fully half the income from all available sources (in the Chatham Islands) is spent on liquor." Mr. Sargent said that per head of population—allowing to be 500 only— the annual consumption of beer was 82 pints, as against 125 pints in New Zealand in the same year. If half the income was spent in liquor, then the average income was only £18 a year. Residents of the Chathams were very indignant about the matter. Evidence was given by Mr. P. N. Qusrtermain, accountant, of Christchurch, showing how much liquor trade was carried on at the Chathams and how the two licensed hotels were conducted. In 1944 the bar takings were £4714, the beer alone handled amounting to 4980 gallons. Maori and nonMaori population were about the same. Maoris were not allowed to take liquor from the premises. "EXCESS," NOT "EXCESSIVE." "The average islander should be described as a 'drinker to excess' rather than as an 'excessive drinker,' for he has neither the money nor the carrying capacity to warrant the latter appellation," stated Mr. A. J. Lambert, for five years a school teacher at the Chathams, in a statement admitted by consent. "It is during these excesses that the moral and social damage is done." The statement said Mr. Lambert was neither an abstainer nor a drinker to excess, and he wished to give an unbiased opinion, more particularly concerning the natives. In a comprehensive survey of the social conditions of those people, the statement said the long-term policy must aim at elevating the community to at least as high a level as might be expected of by the ordinary New Zealand citizen. Factors militating against this were insobriety, immorality, mischief, and profiteering, and loose business methods. The consumption of liquor held a high place in the social and traditional life of the native community, and was indulged in by practically all sections from school leaving age upwards. "As indulged in at present, I have no hesitation in stating that it is definitely detrimental to the well-being of the community," said Mr. Lambert's statement. Illegal, or "off licensed premises" drinking, he asserted, was one of the chief contributing factors in the unsatisfactory state of affairs in the Chatham Islands. It was probably the most serious social problem the islander had to face. The statement suggested that some local authority with more arbitrary executive powers than the present licensing committee be constituted to supervise and control the sale of liquor in the Chatham Islands. Mr. Justice Smith, chairman of the Commission, expressed his pleasure at the excellence of the statement.