THE LICENSING TRUST

Evening Star, Issue 25226, 13 July 1944, Page 8

THE LICENSING TRUST

PURCHASE OF BUILDING INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS DISCUSSED (P.A.) INVERCARGILL, July 12. An important property deal was completed to,-day, when the Invercargill Licensing Trust purchased Newburgh's building, situated at the corner of Dee and Esk streets. It v contains the Brown Owl Cafe, in which the trust is carrying out an interesting experiment', numerous offices, and a billiard room. The purchase price is stated to he about £43,000. It is not suggested that the trust will, in the meantime at any rate, make the building into an hotel. The building lends itself to the provision of another dining room, however, and it is possible that another room similar to the Brown Owl will be opened at some future date. No decision has yet been made by the trust as to .the type of building that will be erected on its sites at Rugfoy Park, Arena], and North Invercargill. Members have many ideas, however, and now that the objections to the sites have not been sustained the trust will be able to proceed with its plans. In its earlier discussions before the objections had been lodged, the trust indicated that it would erect restaurants on these sites—places where people could go and sit down and have afternoon tea or a drink. The longer view taken was that these restaurants could be developed into community centres.