IMPROVED HOTELS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1927, Page 4

IMPROVED HOTELS

DISINTERESTED MANAGEMENT. • The report of the committee on the Disinterested Management of Publichouses, which, under the chairmanship of Lord Southborough, was appointed to consider the several systems of disinterested management which have been put into practice, whether in connexion with private enterprise, or not, has been issued (says the London “Times”). After a full survey the committee reached the conclusion that the systems of disinterested management of publichouses are of proved value and should be encouraged. The work upon which they are engaged has as its aim the evolution of a new and improved type of publichouse, and is thus to some extent experimental in character; the committee think it is of advantage to the community that this work should continue. It is their aspect as a field for similar experiment that constitutes the principal importations of the schemes of State management at Carlisle and elsewhere. Dealing with State management schemes, the committee point out that from the financial point of view the schemes at Carlisle and in Scotland can be regarded as sound; sums have been set aside out of earnings from year to year which have reduced the indebtedness of the schemes to the Exchequer to a figure which stood on March 31, 1926, at £140,682. The evidence as to whether the schemes have reduced drunkenness was conflicting. The greater part of the evidence related to the city of Carlisle, in which the policy of reduction and improvement of houses has been carried out on a more extensive scale than elsewhere in the State-managed areas, and which affords the best example by which the experiment of State management can be judged. As regards the consumption of intoxicar ting liquor in Carlisle, it did not appear to the committee to be established that the reduction of publichouses by 50 pei* cent., and the improvement of those retained has led to a reduction in the quantity of intoxicating liquor consumed beyond that common to the rest of England, Scotland and Wales in the post-war period. At Carlisle, Gretna, and Annan they formed a favourable opinion of the work of those in charge of the practical administration of the State schemes.

Owing to the possession of privileges the State schemes include certain features which licensing benches in many parts of the country would be slow to allow, such as the provision of separate accommodation for women at Carlisle, and the service of intoxicating liquors with food in the refreshment rooms which are attached to certain of the Carlisle houses. Again, it was suggested to the committee that the fact that this was a State enterprise and that, the managers were under State inspectors might possibly tend to induce a less strict supervision by the police than was maintained elsewhere. It must, therefore, be borne in mind, in comparing the State schemes with other forms of enterprise under which the supply of intoxicating liquor is conducted, that the schemes occupy a specially favoured position; they enjoy a monopoly, and are also, and in some respects, outside and above the provisions or the ordinary licensing law.

In a section devoted to a consideration of the publichouse trust movement, the committee express the opinion that the movement has done good service to the community by. the provision of improved publichouses, conducted under disinterested management; in this field the movement has been a pioneer and its example has doubtless been responsible to a considerable extent for the development of similar enterprise on the part of the ordinary licensed trade. But the movement has not so far extended its operations on any very large scale. It cannot be said to have touched the problem of the town publichouses. The alternatives before the trust companies and associations for the purpose of further development arc either to obtain new licenses or to purchase existing houses. The limitation of dividend has been a cardinal principle of the trust movement since its inception, and it was not suggested to the committee by any of the witnesses who appeared on behalf of the companies that they were prepared to abandon it oi' to embark on a merely profit-earning policy. It appears, therefore, that the movement, so long as it retains its present character, is confronted with difficulties as regards its extension which are not susceptible of remedy by any amendment of the licensing laws within the terms of reference laid down for the committee.