DRINK AFTER HOURS

Evening Star, Issue 25470, 28 April 1945, Page 9

DRINK AFTER HOURS

THE PUBLIC TO BLAME TRADE SUGGESTS EVENING OPENING (PA) WELLINGTON, April 27. The real cause of drinking after hours was the man in the street, said Mr P. B. Cooke, K.C., addressing the Royal Commission on Licensing to-day on behalf of the National Council of the Licensed Trade of New Zealand. He did not suggest that all hotelkeepers were blameless, but a licensee did not put his head out of 'the window and say: "Come and have a drink, boys." ( . . One cause of after-hours' drinking was public dissatisfaction with tho present trading hours, Mr Cooke said. It was fantastic to suggest that managers were put into hotels as " dummies," or to suggest that they were incited to commit offences and then Counsel also denied that the spirit of the law, if not the letter, was being evaded by the so-called system of blank transfers, and said that no evidence had been produced, to support this allegation. It was most unjust that allegations of this kind had been bandied about without any concrete evidence to support them. The present system of licensing committees was democratic, and essentially in the public interest, and should be retained. A central controlling body, such as had been suggested, was unnecessary. The trade, however, did support the establishment of a licenses' redistribution board, to be presided over by a judge of the Supreme Court. On the question of trading hours, three suggestions were put forward by the trade, as follows:—10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 3.30 p.m. to 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.; or 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.; or 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.