DON'T WANT BEER TOO NEAR THE PIER

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2312, 3 December 1925, Page 7

DON'T WANT BEER TOO NEAR THE PIER

Application for Removal of Hole! LIQUOR AND LEGAL TUG-o’-WAR AT THAMES [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Last Night. Implications tor the issue of a publican’s license • for the Thames Hotel and for its removal to new premises on the waterfront wero opposed at. a meeting of the licensing committee. Mr Finlay appeared for W. P. T. Grigsby, the applicant. James Gleoson, the owner, said he paid £23,000 for the building and £lO, 000 would be spent on renovation and about £SOOO on furnishings. The license cost £3OOO, so that altogether approximately £41,0000 was invested If the applications were refused, it would mean financial ruin for Glee, son. He had heard It said that an hotel in Quay street, would be a temptation to sailors and wharf urnp’oyeos. Was not that a joke? Was there a sailor or a wharf labourer who did not know there was an hotel a few paces further up the street? “Are we to believe these are so lacking in moral fibre Wrat they could not resist the sight of a hotel?” Mr McVeagh, for the petitioners opposing the applicates,- rrjain tabled that the committee was not competent to grant the removal of the license, as It expired last June, and was non-existent. The present Thames Hotel provided no accommodation except for a bar and conveniences. The premises, therefore, did not comply with the requirements of the licensing Act and it was impossible, in the circumstances, lor the committee to grant a license or the renewal of one. All that the purchaser had at stake was £3OOO paid for the license, because the building would still be worth what was paid for it. Gleoson knew it was just a gamble, and had done everything with his eyes open; just as open as if he had gone to Bllerslle and put £IOOO on the “tote.’' Seamen and men engaged on the wharves would be tempted to go away from their work and the work of the port would be retarded. The likeli. hood of accidents arising from carelessness would be aggravated if liquor was brought to the very door of the wa+erfront. The hearing was adjourned until to-morrow. ____