LIQUOR TRADE REFORMS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12442, 19 January 1909, Page 4

LIQUOR TRADE REFORMS.

[United Press Association.] ; : .. ■ . Auckland, Jan. 17. .V meeting of Auckland brewetf, wine aDU spirit xuarchints, aud tbi° Licensed Victuallers' Association, representing all the wholesale trade and cearly every memher .of the csjcail rade, was held yesterday. Tii? gatiiering^was characterised bj much earnestnessV and the meetiag adopted uaanilnously resolutions eru-oodyk-g the following reforms: (1) The aboJitipn of barmaids, li is proposed to keep p, register of [all barmaids at present employed "" in tue city of Aucklnnd.ana to employ thereafler none except those whose a-iiui'S are on such register. (2) Tue aboli iion of private bars -vliHu the preaant leases expire, except in ihe case of a lengthy period, when a special date is to be fixed. (3) The raising of the age limit at wb'iob' youths' may be served with liquor iv hotels from 18 to 20 years. (4) No woman to be i supplied. with Jrink for consumption on tne premises unless sne be a boarder. Dunedin, Jan. 18. In the course of an interview today, the Rev. W. Thomson, agent for the Licensed Association, expressed the opinion that the reforms proposed by the trade in Auckland are very good so far as they, go. He 'had held for Beveral years that,- provided present barmaids were justly dealt with, say allowed four or five years, the work could be much better done by men, and after that time he would employ no barmaids. He , thought the ■ age at which youths could be served .with liquor in hotels should bo raised to 21 years. He remarked that the Otago Association .!■ asked for that when the 1904 Act , was passed, "The fault of youthful drunkenness lay largely with the home life. He ' thought the proposal that no woman should be served with drink for consumption in hotels, unless she was a lodger was much too arbitrary and ' severe. On the whole, he agreed with i the Auckland suggestions, but the trade must go further. He thought no license should ' certainly mean no liquor, and the law should be amended adding option in favour of either State or municipal r control, giving reasonable . compensation by arbitra- j tion. He strongly opposed the exorbitant rents which some of the hotelkeepers' had to pay,l and for three years -he had sugested a Fair Bent Bill for Hotels. '• __^_ _^J' '