MAKE THE HOTEL A CLUB.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18753, 5 January 1923, Page 8

MAKE THE HOTEL A CLUB.

The reduction in the agricultural wage and the absence of a reduction in the price of beer have put the village inn practically out of bounds to the farm labourer (writes L. F. Easterbrook in a London paper) He cannot really afford even two pints a week, and licensed victuallers, who are no more tender-hearted than anyone else, wib tell you that they hate selling beer to the village men, because they know that they have not enough money to keep their families as it is. This closing of the village inn to him leaves a b'g gap in tho farm labourer’s life. It was not only the beer he liked; ho also appreciated the inn parlour as a place; where ho could find congenial company between work and bed, rest for his limbs, and a serene atmosphere for leisurely discussion with his fellow-beings. True, there is the new Village Hall, with dancing, a bagatelle board, and a rasping gramophone, but, for the older men especially, this is poor compensation for tho village inn. The village inn, with its accompanying sedatives of beer and tobacco—the last little luxuries the farm labourer had left—is temporarily dead, and it has left a big hole in the social side of village life. But, fortunately, it is not likely to be closed for ever. Sooner or later even tho urban population must realise that the countryside must bo made financially and socially attractive, or the influx of rural labour will swamp tho labour market m the towns. .... When country life comes into its own again it is to be hoped that tho village inn will flourish under improved conditions. The drinking of on© gla-se, or oven two, of light beer is not a very degraded action Let the bar parlour be a bright, cheerful, airy place, not a gloomy cell smelling of stale beer and sawdust. In summer months such a desperate step might even bo taken as to sell beer in the inn garden, where a man might take Ins wife to share a bottle of stout without being publicly shamed. It would he a fine thing, _ too. if sonie arrangement could he made with the, innkeeper by."which a small weekly subscription entitled those who paid it io the use or a room where cards could be played and newspapers provided and read. _ t Let us have a clear issue. If boor drinking is an evil thing, then it is the duty of' the State to stop it But if.it is only a pleasant concomitnnt of social intercourse, a refreshing draught after tho day s work, then let facilities bo given for those who have earned it to enjoy it under the best possible conditions. . But what every village wants is a club offering the seme opportunities for combining the pleasure of social intercourse with refreshment as the clubs of the wealthier classes. But it muft bo run on lines to suit poorer pockets.