OPEN LIQUOR SALES

Grey River Argus, 1 July 1944, Page 2

OPEN LIQUOR SALES

After 38 Year Lapse FOUR INVERCARGILL HOTELS. OPEN TO-DAY. P.A. INVERCARGILL June 30. After a lapse of exactly 38 years, liquor will again be openly on sale in Invercargill to-morrow. This time it is under the control of the Invercargill Licensing Trust, which will begin trading from four premises, The Kelvin, The Clyde, The Appelby. and The Brown Owl. The event will not be marked by any official ceremony by the Trust. The premises will open at 10 a.m., and close again from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and will reopen from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in keeping with the legal requirements for Saturday. There have been reports of crowds coming from Bluff, Nightcaps, and Gore and even Dunedin for the occasion, and it is thought that the accommodation at the bars will not be sufficient. It may, however, be a matter of history, repeating itself. When the hotels were closed on June 30, 1906, the streets were thronged with crowds, in to see the fun, but they were mostly there out of curiosity, and the night passed off fairly quietly. Trust control of the sale of liquor is an innovation for New Zealand, and it has created Dominion wide interest.