HALF-PAY CLOSING FOR HOTELS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 2 August 1913, Page 5

HALF-PAY CLOSING FOR HOTELS.

When the New Zealand Alliance deputation was before the Prime Minister recently one of the requests of the party was that the Act ,-should be amended so that hotels should be compelled to close with the shops on the statutory half-holiday. Mr J_ S. Dickson, member for Parnell, has received and will present to Parliament, a petition signed by 1000 electors of Auckland City and suburbs, praying that the law be so amended as to provide that hotels shall be compelled to close from 1 p.m. on the statutory closing day. on the ground that a continuance of the present provision "is detrimental to :he general trading interests of the community and the direct cause of _a great amount of drunkenness." Itwill be remembered that the Prime Minister's reply to the Alliance deputation recently contained a statement to the effect that the insertion of such a clause as was suggested in a Government measure would seriously endager the fate of that measure.