SPIRIT MEASURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1042, 5 August 1930, Page 1

SPIRIT MEASURES

"DRINKS ON THE HOUSE" ARE FINISHED SIXPENCE OR NINEPENCE? Hotel-keepers are taking theii choice of either a sixpenny or » ninepenny spirit measure in their bars. Since the new tariff prices of liquor came into operation all spirits must be sold by the measure and the supply of these measures has run so short that supplies have been cabled for from England. Inquiries made this morning show that most hotel proprietors are installing the sixpenny measure. Some are installing both; but it Is considered that most people require only a sixpenny “nip.” “Most of our customers want only a small ‘nip’ of spirits,” said one hotel proprietor this morning. “Drinks served in the lounge will remain at their present price.” he added. CANNOT CHANGE MEASURE As each hotel will want 200 or 300 measures the supply available has been reduced rapidly. One each is required for each brand of whisky, gin. brandy and rum as the measures cannot be changed over from one kind of drink to another. The increase under the new tariff in the price of liquor will do away with that pleasant old custom of “haying one on the house.” This, however, was fast disappearing and prevailed in only a few of the city’s hotels. “There is so little profit In the business now that It Is hardly worth ths bother and the worry,” remarked one of the hotel proprietors today. “We have been cut down to the very smallest margin.” However, it is an ill wind. . . . One Christchurch firm is doing an excellent business in selling its measures, which are said to be the equal of those imported from abroad. Measures will be installed in most of the hotels by the end of this week. Some are already in operation.