DRINK AT DANCES

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1927, Page 2

DRINK AT DANCES

LICENSEES’ VIEWPOINT. “They are the truest words ever spoken in New Zealand,” said Mr J. D. Wingham (President of the West Coast Licensed Victuallers’ Association), referring to-day to the remarks of Mr Arthur Rose (President of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association) at Christchurch, in which he ascribed the reported prevalence of “flask parties” at dances to the six o’clock closing of hotels, which resulted in young men taking liquor to dances w’ith them, instead of going to the nearest hotel for a “spot” between dances. “If the hotels were opened until a reasonable hour,” said Mr Wingham, “there would be none of the trouble that is being freely reported to-day. The West Coast licensees, know that Mr Rose’s wbrds are true, and admire him for his outspokenness. I have been a publican for eighteen years, and I never heard of drinking at dances before the six o’clock closing of hotels was enforced. I lived in a Prohibition town before I became a publican, and I know that Prohibition has been the ruination of many homes.

“In a rural working class community such as the West Coast,” he continued, “six o’clock closing practically amounts to Prohibition. The men leave for their work before the hotels are open in the morning, and do not get back to town until after the hotels are closed. Take a miner, for instance. After a day’s work in the mine, shovelling coal, he needs a drink, but has to break the law to get one, and the publican also has to break the law to give him a drink. Put the Prohibitionists to work underground for a day or two, and they would probablj r alter their views regarding the desirability of liquor in moderation.”