LOCAL OPTION AND COMPENSATION TO PUBLICANS.

Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 3381, 28 May 1881, Page 2

LOCAL OPTION AND COMPENSATION TO PUBLICANS.

LECTURE BY DB. WALLIS.

In accordance with the promise made ou the occasion of the uddress to his conatitii, cuts, Dr. Wallis last night delivered a lecture in the Temperance Hall under thn auspices of the local branch of the United Kingdom Alliance on tlic above subject There was but a meagre audience. '

Mr Brame assumed the chair at 8 o'clock and after reading the advertisement con! yelling the meeting, opened the proceeding* •with an explanation of the manner in which the lecture had btcn arranged.

Dr. Wallis prefaced his discourse with a few remarks upon the same head. He said that in the iirst instance lie h^Jj been requested by the Total Abstinence Society to come forward and publicly ex. plain his reasons for certain statement! which he had made in the House of Kepro. Beutatives favourable to the doctrine of compensation to publicans. Thinking the proposal a foolish one, he declined jt Then a kind of threat was made that ho would be challenged to a public discussion on the subject, and he was therefore privately pi eased to consent to some such arrangement—to come there into the den of linns and meekly submit his back for a rod width had been in picklo for him. He again refused, being disin. dined to meet there and engage in debato with come voluble windbag perhaps, some garrulous Tom, Dick, or Harry, whom ha did not know, and the result of a contest with whom would be profitless. The matter passedoutof his mind; butlastweek it was revived by the questions put by Ji r Hill, which were so delightfully easy for him to answer. He did not know why the Total Abstinence Society should be go solicitous of having a lecture from him, but he shrewdly imagined that the ob. jeet was to prejudice his chances at the next general election. He was therefore in the position of the lamb which licked the hand that was being raised to slay it. However, he had no hesitation in saying that while he fully sympathised with the members of the fcociety in their philanthropic efforts, yet as a politician he chose to hold opinions ot his own and to maintain them in spite of the Total Abstinence Society. The speaker then went on to show that intemperance was a great and a growing evil, and that there was urgent need of steps being taken for its abatement. In England alone, he said, the annual consumption of alcohol represented a value of £80,000,000, while it. carried oil' to the grave 60,000 lives annually. They had then to fight this groat enemy, and, in doing it, they had to avoid injustice by making reparation to those institutions which were affected ml the effort. There were two general methods of carrying on the fight, viz,, the Christian method and the political method. The Christian method was cither to increaser the power of resistance against it, or to diminish its pressure. That was to be attained by educating the people to shun the | use of alcohol, and to discourage the drink, ir.gpracticcs of theage. The political method might be further sub-divided into three, viz.,—The Good Templar method, the Gothenburg or municipal method, and the permissive or local option method. The Good Templar method was to abolish by force and at one blow the whole liquor tiallic, but it was thoroughly impracticable and besides, grossly unfair. It meant mi enormous depreciation of property, for in Great Britain alone tho monetary value of the plant connected iwith the liquor traffic was not less than £170,000,000. Theu the 1,500,000 people engaged in it would be denied a livelihood, and a large hole would bo made in the national revenue. But, above and beyond these results, it would be the means of establishing a tyranny of the worst charac ter' by denying a minority their inherent liberty as British subjects—a tyranny which would be most grievously felt by the poor inasmuch as the means of the rich would enable them to elude it. Illicit distillation would become almost genera), tho police force would have to be increased, and armies of spies and informers would have to be maintained. fcuca a scheme would not do at all, for it was at variance with the spirit of the age. Tho second method was the botbenburg or municipal method. It was originated at Gothenburg, in Sweden, by. a number of practical philanthropists there. They formed a society which bought up all the hotels in the place, appointed trustworthy ineu to conduct them properly.and with the prolits arising from the business, augmented/ tuc municipal funds. Iv a few years the annual revenue from this source mounted up to £35,000, aud the effect was that the burgesses were relieved wholly from rates. The Hon. J. Chamberlain was the great advocate of tho system in England, but he (the speaker) did not think that it would work in this colony. The third method was local option, which gave to the majority of residents in a district or parish the power of deciding whether or not a public-houso should be continued iv it. It used to be called the Permissive Scheme, but he could hardly sec with what appropriateness, for. its design was rather prohibition than permission. Its machinery was simple. An officer in the district would be required when requested by a certain number of householders to call a meeting, and then* take the votes of those present whether or not the specilied house should be closed. On the whole, it seemed to him that the advantages that would result from looal option would preponderate over the disadvantages that would be caused by it. Therefore, he had systematically supported in the House of Representatives any such propositions, and he would continue to do so, but only on the couditiou that compensation should be awarded to those who were injured by auch a measure. Still he was not enthusiastic about local option, and that he candidly avowed. Dr. Wallis then proceeded to advance arguments in support of, looal option. The first was, that as we were to some extent our brothers' keepers, it was our duty to attempt to remove temptations' out of their path; then.if the sovereignty of the people were admitted, they could hardly be refused the power of decidiDg1 the matter for themselves; and, thirdly, that, as our experience shewed that intem> pcrance decreased with a diminution of the facilities for temptation, these facilities' should be diminished as far as possible' without encroaching upon popular free, dom. Free trade in liquorhad been tried in Liverpool with terrible consequences, therefore trammels and restrictions of some sort were necessary. ' A fourth ground might be advanced, viz., that as the community had to bear the burden of the disease, insanity, and crime caused by intemperance, it was entitled to sohie extent to check it in a reasonable way. The doctor then went on to show that lawabiding publicans upon being dispossessed of their businesses by local option wore entitled f,o compensation, and that itwould be expedient, politic, and prudent tar grant it to them. If a publican violated the law by keeping a disorderly or badly-con-ducted house, it was but right that the law should step in and suppress it without awarding a single stiver of compensation; but in "cases where tho law waa thoroughly observed and carried out, and the House respectably conducted the publican was en* titled to compensation exactly to the amount of injury done him by the deprivation of his trade. On the grounds of reason ' aud justice and on the further ground too of adhering to the tradition of English legislation this should be done. They might as well suppress any other legitimate business without compensation as that of the publicau, aud if the people were therefore . desirous of securing any ,such reform— any ' such moral luxury—they should pay for it. The measure of compensation should either bo the selliug value of the house, or the1 basis of the profits for three or four years previous, and it should be paid partly to the owuer of the house, and partly to the licensee. 'After deriding the ideas that alcohol was a slow poison, that » was not useful or healthful » taken in moderation, and that its sale was necessarily degrading and pointing out that no great reform was achieved without suffering, self-abnegation, and self-sacrifice, Dr. Wallis concluded by citing many historical instances of compensation being paid in order to secure the abolition of crying evils, such as church patronage, tho slave trade, and army purchase, The Chairman explained that the Executive of the Alliance had undertaken, at Dr. Wallis's reqneat, that there should be no discussion at the close of the lecture, but that the Alliance reserved to itself the right of taking up tho doctor's sentiments afterwards if it deemed proper. The lecturer had earned their cordial thanks. Upon the motion of Mr C. G. Hill. seconded by Mr K. Peace, a vote of thanks was passed to .Dr. Wallis, who briefly ackuowledged the compliment. The passing of a siuiilar vote to the Chairman brought the I'roceedings to an end. i