THE LICENSING TRUST

Southland Times, Issue 25359, 10 May 1944, Page 3

THE LICENSING TRUST

Sir,—An advertisement has appeared for the appointment of a secretarymanager in connection with the coming sale of intoxicating liquor. The salary is quoted at the astounding amount of £lOOO a year. Would the chairman of this trust be good enough to tell the public of Invercargill where this huge amount is coming from? It will be some three months before there is any revenue from sales, and the trust must be very optimistic about the profits. Do they realize that there can be no profits except to the extent that drink is consumed, and do they suppose that members of the general public are so keen on beer that they are going to rush these bars and pour it into themselves? If that should be so, the homes must suffer to give profit to the beer trust. Also it is being asked what has Invercargill got to do with Bluff, or vice versa, that a Bluff man should be on the' trust. Bluff has its own hotels and has no connection whatever with Invercargill., It would be interesting .to have the comment of the chairman. NO LICENCE.

[The chairman of the Invercargill Licensing Trust (Mr Hugh Ritchie), to whom this letter was referred, said that the money would first of all come from the Treasury, but the trust hoped it would eventually come from the profits. Mr Ritchie said that hotel managers in northern centres were paid from £lOOO to £l5OO a year and he pointed out that the qualifications for the. position of secretary-manager to the trust were fairly high. “No one knows better than I do the misery that is caused through over-indulgence in drink,” said Mr Ritchie, “but the forming of the trust is an experiment to see if we can obviate excessive drinking. People should not be too optimistic immediately.” Mr Ritchie said that he understood that the Bluff representative on the trust would shortly be a resident of Invercargill.]