THIRSTY AMERICANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21984, 20 June 1933, Page 8

THIRSTY AMERICANS

APPEAL OF DOMINION BEER LARGE ORDER GOES BEGGING It would seem that the action o: the Government of the United States in amending the prohibition laws to permit the sale of light beers has not by any means assuaged the thirst of the American public. Indeed, it would almost appear that, the taste having been acquired anew, the demand for alcoholic beverages has grown overnight and that it has now reached enormous proportions. Apparently such brewers as have commenced operations in the United States have not succeeded with the usual American “ hustle ” and efficiency in meeting the new market. Representatives of the wholesale trade arc, therefore, extending their search for sources of supply far afield. Such, apparently, is the urgency of the need, that the most remote corners of the earth are not being overlooked, and the exigency of the circumstances has resulted in the quest being extended to Dunedin. Last week a local representative of American interests, acting, it is understood, through a Sydney firm, approached Speight’s branch of New Zealand Breweries, Ltd., and inquired whether it would be possible to fulfil an order for the immediate delivery of 25,000 casks of 3.2 beer. It is understood that the proposed destination of the beer was San Francisco, and that speed was the essence of the contract. Unfortunately for local industry a reply had to be given to the American representative that no beer was brewed locally below a strength of 7 per cent., and for that reason the execution of the order could not be entertained.

Apart altogether from this fact, the prospects of immediate fulfilment of an order for 25,000 casks in the Dominion are, to say the least, remote, and it is to be feared that, in &o far as Dunedin is concerned, thirsty Americans will be compelled to possess their souls in patience against the day when their own brewers will be able to come to the rescue. What steps the American representative now proposes to take to satisfy his impatient clients have not been revealed, but it is to be presumed that he is not yet baffled and that the quest will be extended to fields still more remote before defeat is accepted.