PUBLICAN ADDRESSES REEFTON. MEETING ON BEER BOYCOTT

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 November 1947, Page 8

PUBLICAN ADDRESSES REEFTON. MEETING ON BEER BOYCOTT

[SPECIAL TO STAR] REEFTON, This Day. The claim that the beer boycott was very unjust was made by Mr W. S. Clark, president of the Inangahua Licensed. Victuallers’ Association,' when in the Princess Theatre, Reefton, last evening, he addressed a public meeting called by the Association, in order that it could state its case for the recent increase to 7d in the price of beer. The hall was half-filled and : included in the audience. was a .number of women. j Hotels had to be maintained at •a. standard laid down by the authorities, said Mr Clark and they had Io provide an adequate service lor the travelling public. He claimed that il was not possible for hotelkeepers to do this when beer was sold for fid a glass. Hotelkeepers, and, in many cases, their wives and families, had to work long hours, ho said, and in comparison with other workers, hotel--1 keepers received a very poor return for their labour. The hours of work were more (d'ten 90 a week than 40. “Strife Among Workers"

Mr Clarke alleged that the boor boycott was- being used to raise strile among the workers and io play off one section of the community against another. The association, he said, had made a request to the Trades Council at Greymouth that representatives of both organisations should co to Wellington Io meet the authorities \slh a view to reducing costs to Hi?'T’Ublieans. The council had declined tin's request and had demanded that the Licensed Victuallers' Association reduce the price of the lOoz. measure to fid before they would agree to the proposal. The Inangahua Association had asked to be allowed to attend the meeting at Reefton last Sunday, when representatives of the Tracies Council addressed workers, but this request had been declined. He appealed Io those present to be fair and not to support the unjust boycott. He

pointed out that ninny hotelkeepers had saved hard-earned money to go into business, and had been good supporters of the Labour movement.The boycott now was placing the small man at a disadvantage and he maintained that it had been imposed without the sanction of the rank and file of the unions. A section of the community was imposing its will on the whole and was really defying the lay/. The Price Triliunal had fixed the price for lOoz of beer at 7d. but the section responsible for the boycott had ignored this. Poor Reward

Tn support of his contention that the reward ’ received for the publican’s work was n,ot large, Mr Clark offered to allow an examination of his books. If supported, he said, the continuance of the boycott. amounted to a vote of censure on the Labour Government, and he felt sure that this was not the wish of unions. He advised Ihe members of unions to wake up and lake more interest in their all'air-'. and not to allow themselves to be ruled by elements that we’re nol acting for the benefit of the union movement.

In reply to a question as to. the amount of additional profit derived from the extra penny charged for a lOoz beer, Mr Clarke said that beer cost the hotelkeeper 5s lOd per gallon, and his profit on the sale of 1G lOoz measures was 2s 2d. In reply to another question. Mr Clark said that he was serving a full lOoz glass for 7d, Was Meeting “Salted ? ■Reference was also made to the request of the L.V.A. to be allowed to address the meeting of workers last Sunday. It was stated that the vote of the meeting had been against the request. Mr Clarke suggested, however, that Hie meeting had boon “salted.” A suggestion by a member of lhe audience that a vote for or against the beer boycott be taken was nol favoured by Mr Clark, who said that the best plan would be for members of the audience to make their own decisions. A vote, he said, would not be wise, but he appealed to the public to be fair. There were few interjections during the address, and though there was a good deal of cross-talk among members of the audiences, this was conducted in a light-spirited manner.