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Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20668, 5 March 1937, Page 2

The New Zealand licensing laws strike many English visitors as peculiar. Confirmation of this opinion was given by Mr A. Birkett, of Hanley, England, who in an Interview in Christchurch, described them as ridiculous. Mr Birkett is making his second tour of New Zealand. He said that it seemed as if the time had come to revise the licensing laws and bring them up to date. English visitors were accustomed to having liquor with their meals, and they missed these facilities in New Zealand when they were not actually staying at an hotel. Australia and New Zealand were singular in this respect. Mr Birkett said that he had been in hotel bars between 5.30 and 6 p.m., and many of the patrons gave the impression that they were drinking to time—drinking as rapidly as possible to assimilate the desired quantity before they were shut out. At some country hotels he had even found It impossible to get a meal after 7 o'clock, but the comparative scarcity of travellers might account for that. -