THE LIQUOR TRADE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2403, 19 January 1909, Page 5

THE LIQUOR TRADE.

THE PROPOSED REFORMS. (Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Jan. 18. In the course of an interview today, the Rev. W. Thomson, agent for the Licensed Victuallers’ Association, expressed the opinion till!it the reforms• proposed by the trade in Auckland were very good so far as they go. Ho had ihefd for several years that, provided the present liarmaids 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 he served with liquor in' hot ells should be raised to 21 years, and .remarked that the, Otago Association Iliad asked for that ivlien the 1904 Act was passed. The fault of youthful drunkenness , lav 'largely in homo .life. He thought the proposal that no woman should) .be served with drink ifor consumption in hotels unless she was a lodger mu ch too arbitrary and severe,. On the whole he agreed with the reforms, but the trade must go further. He thought “no-license,” shouid certainly mean “no liquor.” 'The law should *ho amended adding an option m favor of either State or municipal control. He preferred municipal control, giving reasonable compensation by arbitration. He strongly opposed the exorbitant rents -which some hotelkeepers had to pay, and for three years had suggested a Fair Rent Bill -for hotels.