WOMEN AND HOTELS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14702, 9 December 1909, Page 8

WOMEN AND HOTELS.

POSITION OP PUBLICANS. (From Our Own Corkesfondext.) AUCKLAND, December 8. The V woman, who drinks" was somewhat frequently under discussion throughout the proceedings at yesterday's quarterly sitting of the Auckland City Licensing Committee. Evidence was given by the policc that in one or two instances licensee* of city hotels had been in tho habit of serving women of disrcputablo character with hqnor. Mr Earle, who represented the' publicans in question, contended on each occasion that tho question cropped up that it was no offence to serve a woman with a drink in an hotel so long, as she was not on the premises longer than was necessary to consume that- drink. He liiado llio -point also that a woman was just- as much entitled to obtain a .drink in an hotel as a man, provided that slvo coukl pay for it. He dwelt- upon the difficulty hotelkeepers laboured under in discriminating between good women and women of bad character. Even a woman of tho unfortunate class, Mr Earle argued, was entitled to be supplied with drink. If a- licensee were to refuse a woman liquor on. the plea that he suspected her of belonging to this class he might find himself involved m a slander action. oerg'jant -Rowel!, who was giving evidence in one case, remarked that there wero soni-p hotels in Auckland at which women wero rot allowed to drink-not even allowed insidti the door. MV Earle agreed that that was so as regarded some of the fast-class hotels • , P ollco sergeant retorted that it ! ras «hc caso at several of the smaller houses also. '

On being asked by counsel if he thought every woman ought to be a prohibitionist, he witas replied that public opinion n Auckland was against women goto" to hotels at all. There was nothing in lie act to force a licensee to servo drink to women.

Mr Karle: Another injustice to the sex' \\ hero arc the suffragettes? In the end tho committee mado a general-recommendation, to licensees in. city that the practice of serving