IRISH LIQUOR BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18889, 11 December 1924, Page 10

IRISH LIQUOR BILL.

NOT CREDIT TO BE CIVEN. J SUNDAY CLOSING QUESTION. LONDON- Nov. • 28. The Free State Senate has Restored to the liquor bill a proposal to close hotels on SL Patrick's Day,, and has. rejected a proposal to : close hotels on Sundays, Good ' Friday and Christmas Day.. The bill makes it .an offeree for a publican to give credit. .Mr. .Kevin O'Higgins, Minister for Home Affairs, explains that a man after four of five* drinks takes a rosy view of "his prospects, and spends far beyond his means if he is given credit. Mr. O'Higgins forecasts a commission to reduce licenses. The London County Council has again rejected, by 47. votes to 43, a committee recommendation to allow music halls to sell intoxicants. 1. 1 When introducing the Liquor BUI in the Dail in June* Mr. O'Higgins said that the Free State had 150,000 licensed pub-lic-houses, or one for every 200 of the liopulation. England, he said, had one icenaed house for every 400 of population, and Scotland one for every 605. The bill proposed to close public-houses at 9.30 p.m.,, thus giving, thera-a 13-hour day, but the Dail would not tolerate the proposal to close them on St. Patrick' 3 Day, one member declaring that if their • fathers heard of such a thing they would turn in their graves.