OTAGO PUBLICHOUSE TRUST ASSOCIATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 12

OTAGO PUBLICHOUSE TRUST ASSOCIATION.

By Colonel Morris

The nature and objects of the above association are evidently so little known, and so often misrepresented by correspondents in your columns, that I should like to explain what they are. It must bo admitted that the vast majority of the people in Dunedici, as in all other communities, are temperate, moderate, sensible men, who cannot regard the use of good liquor as a crime or a sin. The abuse they deplore, in the shape of drunkenness, leading to crime and sorrow and misery to wives and children. The problem, then, that presents itself is : How can we carry on the use of liquor while reducing its abuse to a minimum? Our prohibition friends say by abolishing its use altogether ! In other words, to save the small minority, who from weak minds and weaker wills are unable to resist indulging to excess, from, the consequences of their weakness, the great majority who can, and do, control their appetities are to be denied the use of the gift that God Almighty has given to cheer the heart of man! Instead of "the greatest good for' the greatest number," the greatest number are to suffer for a comparatively few weak individuals, who should be treated as persons unable to control their actions, and therefore fit subjects for asylums or inebriate homes. It is also almost certain that if the Prohibition party were able to carry "No license " at the local option poll the poor drunkard would not be benefited.

Although soino of the Moderate party would keep the law, a vast number would resent the interference with their liberty to drink whenever they saw fit, and their domand would be met by the creation of numerous sly-grog shops, retailing the most villainous poisons. The first to discover and employ these grog shops would be the wretched drunkard that the prohibitionist is now weeping over. " The last state of that man would be worse than the first." No, prohibition is . not the answer to the problem how we can use liquor whilst reducing its abuse. The true answer is, " publichouse reform." There undoubtedly are many hotels that are all that they should be, where drunkenness would not be permitted, and which would not break the law by selling to intoxicated persons or soiling in prohibited hours ; but there are a vast majority whore the hotelkeeper, anxious to make money as quickly as possible, thinks only of making a profit, regardless of all law. The remedy for thi6 is to eliminate the question of profit from the sale of liquor. This can only be done by the appointment of managers and employees who are in receipt of salaries, and consequently have no interest in the quantity of liquor that is sold. The hotels must be under the control of either the State, municipality, or of companies, who will appoint the manager and employee, on salaries, and keep strict superintendence over them. Now, we can have no hope that the State or municipality will thus undertake the control of all hotels at the present time, although it is possible, after the success of the undertaking is assured, the State may find it necessary to take them over. If, then, anything in the way of hotel reform is to be instituted — and that it is wanted no one will deny — it must be done by a company or association such as the Otago Publichouse Trust Association. This association cannot, as the State could, buy up all the hotels in the town and country, but they can begin in a Btnall way. buying the lease of one or more hotels, and carry on the business like any other respectable hotelkeeper In addition to the best of beer, wines, and spirits which may be demanded, temperance drinks, with tea and coffee, would bo provided for those who wish. Whilst no commission on intoxicants would be given to the employees, a commission would be Riven on all other drinks, so that the employees would find it to their interest to encourage the latter at the expense of the former. It is also intended to have reading rooms, recreation rooms with games such a3 chess and ping-pong, ladies' tea rooms, luncheon rooms, billiards, etc. ; in fact, to make the hotels as attractive as possible. The aim of the association will be to make the bar an adjunct to the hotel, and not the hotel an adjunct to the bar, as is too often the case now.

It may be said that if the employees do not gain any profit from enhanced sales of liquors, the association would, for the <-ake of its shareholders, take care that pales should not fall off. To prevent tlm objection, and to eliminate the inducement of profit from the shareholders, it is intended to fix a maximum dividend of, say, 5 per GOiu..— Hie maximum divitLaml jaaid Jjy sijnilar

institutions in the Homo Country. It has been said that the association would never make a profit sufficient to pay a dividend of 5 per cent. ! Well, the association is not intended to bo a money-making concern ; ite -shareholders will take up shares, with a view of improving and controlling the drink traffic for the good of the town. But why should it not make a profit like any other hotel that i 3 respectable enough not to break the laws of the colony? It is well known that hotels started on tho same lines in. England and Scotland have paid, and do pay. One small hotel in the village of Beath, in Fifeshire, has just paid £1100 for recreation rooms, and a village bowling gTeen and electric-light plant had also been provided from the same source. A well-con-ducted hotel should, and must, pay a better dividend than 5 per cent. What, then, is it proposed to do with any balance of profit? It has been said that one or two hotels of the association will not be of any practical good, for if a man is denied his drink he can step across to another hotel. This is true, but the association propose to spend any profit over and above the 5 per cent, dividend in purchasing other hotels, so that in the course of a few years they hope to get a firm grip of the liqXior trade and control it for. the good of the public. There have been many objections raised and questions to answer which must be left for a future day. 1 will conclude with an appeal to those people in Dunedin who must recognise that something must be done to regulate the drink traffic, that at present the battle lies between the liquor sellers and the Prohibition party, and that these last are a strong organisation, banded together to carry "no-license" at tho poll. The strength of the voters lies in the Moderate party, but unless that Moderate party awake to their danger and recognise the evils that will ensue if " no-license " is carried — as in Clutha, so in Dunedin— the Moderate party will wake up one morning to find all the publichouses shut up ! The remedy for the evils of drunkenness is not " prohibition," but "publichouse reform," and the most effective means of carrying out reform short of State control is the scheme of the Otago Publichouse Trust Association.