WEST COAST BEER BOYCOTT

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 January 1948, Page 3

WEST COAST BEER BOYCOTT

NO MORE HOTELS WILL GIVE WAY “There are 11 hotels on the West Coast that have reverted to sixpenny beers, but they are 11 out of about 100 hotels. That number is going to stay at 11." This assertion was made by the president of the West Coast Licensed Victuallers’ Association (Mr. A. Beban), in an interview. He added: "There is no intention whatsoever of hotels in the three main centres —Hokitika, Greymouth, and Reefton—making any change from sevenpence. “We knew weeks ago that with the unions behind the boycott, insisting on majority rule, we would not be able to hold out. They have been brave and loyal to stick as long as they did, but the result was inevitable —it was a sitting shot for the miners," Mr. Beban said. 1 “But there are going to be no more withdrawals." Financial help for the hotels that have been suffering most from the boycott, in the mining areas, has now ceased, and all hotels are now standing on their own feet, Mr. Beban said. In Hokitika. Greymouth, and Reefton business was now back to normal, for although the custom might be rhtly less this was more than compensated for by the extra penny that publicans now received. Mr. Beban said. Business over Christmas nad been a record. Only one hotel, in Greymouth, was still suffering from reduced business, but this was only because it was located on the waterfront. It had not applied for any financial help, and he was certain that its price would stay at sevenpence. One hotel had been selling beer at sixpence in Greymouth, Mr. Beban said, but he did not know what intentions it had for the future. At present it was selling about eight to ten times its usual quota of beer. Although he had no comment to make on the establishment or the running of workingmen’s clubs on the West Coast, Mr. Beban said the licensed trade did not expect any great competition from them. “The main thing about a glass of beer is the company in which a man drinks it; and there will not be the conviviality to be found in the hotels in those clubs—drinking beer will be like kissing your sister,” Mr. Beban said.