MASONIC HOTEL LOANS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 270, 29 October 1932, Page 8

MASONIC HOTEL LOANS

TEMPERANCE COUNCIL RESOLUTION. At a meeting of the Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Temperance Council, held in Napier yesterday, the following resolution was passed:— “This council enters an emphatic protest against tne advance of the people’s funds to finance buildings for the liquor trade, a monopoly which a large section of the people have repeatedly registered their conviction should end, and especially against the preferential treatment in advancing moneys for the rebuilding of the Napier Masonic Hotel to an extent said to exceed the contract price of the building. when applications for loans by more legitimate businesses have either been declined, or offered such a limited measure of help as to be worthless, while little or no assistance has been given to repair the,heavy earthquake losses of church properties, friendly societies properties, and social services institutions. “Further, that while taxi drivers between Hastings and Napier have been prevented from continuing to earn their living on an assumption that it is in some way inimical to the public interest to have too many folk engaged in a necessary service, it is inconsistent to finance with public funds part of a traffic which requires special legislation to limit its dangers, and which in Napier constituency has too many license*.”