Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1885. The Ten O’clock Closing Hour.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1676, 20 February 1885, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1885. The Ten O’clock Closing Hour.

"We recently referred to the fact that the total abstinence party in Wellington had put up candidates in all the city licensing districts pledged to close all hotel bars at ten p.m. The hotel keepers has also a separate lot of candidates, who proposes to maintain, for the most part, the twelve o’clock closing hour. Connected with this matter, it has to be noted that the total abstinence party claim that the ten o’clock closing system in Auckland has diminished the takings of the hotels there during the time it was in operation, by a sum of £50,000 This was a somewhat rash statement, and the Evening Post as the organ of the hotelkeepers, at once denied its accuracy, at the same time showing that in Auckland during the continuance of the ten o’clock closing system the amount of duties collected on spirits and beer had actually increased. The theory of the Post therefore is that when hotels are closed at ten o’clock, more drink is sold than when they are allowed to be open till twelve o’clock. On the other hand, the Auckland hotelkeepers have themselves asserted that the effect of the closing at ten o’clock was to diminish their takings by £IOOO a week. Wo are of opinion that the real state of the ease is pretty much as follows To close hotels in large cities at ten o’clock, Instead of twelve o'clock, will un dnubtedly diminish their takings to a certain extent, but not so much as might be supposed, as a good deal of liquor would still continue to be sold after the local (dosing hour. In fact, the law in Auckland has been systematically evaded by the hotelkeepers. Then the ten o’clock system in Auckland has led to drink being sold in oyster saloons, supper rooms, and houses of ill- fame. Thus, though the hotels were closed at ten o’clock, the actual amount of drink sold in all ways was not diminished—indeed the Customs Revenue would indicate an increased sale. We doubt very much if the ten o’clock closing system, as applied to large cities, would materially diminish the sale and consumption of drink, simply because sly grog selling would increase and the drink traffic to a certain extent be forced into illegitimate channels. But, in the country d'sfncts, we think that (he ien o’clock closing svstom would tend to diminish the sale of drink. People would require to clear out of hotels at ten o’clock instead of remaining to a later hour, and of course less liquor would be consumed. It is not likely that closing the hotels at ten o’clock would result in sly grog selling in the small townships and country districts, simply because the illegal trade would not be worth taking up On the whole, wo are inclined to the belief that it would bo well to adopt the ten o’clock closing system as applied to hotels in the country townships and districts. In the larger cities the experiment has not yet been generally tried, but in the case of Auckland "the result, so far, is not very encouraging.