CLOSING ON ELECTION DAY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 685, 23 April 1903, Page 22

CLOSING ON ELECTION DAY.

The Dunedin Star waxes very wroth concerning what it calls “ the absurd practice of allowing railway refreshment bars to remain open for the sale of intoxicating liquor at times when th® ordinary licensee is obliged to close his bar. Yesterday (Good Friday), as on election day, a ‘ roaring business ’ was being done in liquor at the Dunedin station durittg what ought to have been prohibited hours ; and there was no pretence of confining the sale to the bona fide travellers for whose accommodation this special in dulgence is presumably intended. Ihe hotel bars being closed, the thirsty souls of the City found an unwonted attraction in the arrival and departure of the various trains; and the refreshment rooms were packed with what was simply a drinking crowd —sometimes ‘ three deep. The general effect was the reverse of edifying. It would be better for railway refreshment rooms to be abolished than that this state of matters should continued Reason and common sense, as well aa a consideration for seemliness and good order, are dgainst an exemption of this kind ; and thq regulations should be promptly amended so as to compel railway licensees to close their bars during the ordinary prohibited hours. We urgently direct the attention of the Minister of Railways to the matter ; but it is also to be hoped that Parliament will go a step further and, in amending the licensing laws, place the control of railway refreshment bars in the hands of the local licensing committees.” Now,- if these contentions prove anything, it is that the practice of closing the hotels on election day is tyrannical. That it is unnecessary, and a gross reflection upon the character of the electors at large, we need scarcely add.