TEMPERANCE DEPUTATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 162, 9 July 1903, Page 2

TEMPERANCE DEPUTATION.

A REPRESENTATIVE GATHERING.

PREMIER AND PROHIBITIONISTS.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, this day. It was a big and representative gathering which filed through the lobby and away into the dim and musty recesses of Parliamentary Buildings late yesterday afternoon. Altogether there must have been nearly one hundred and fifty persons crowded into the room of the old library, now sacred to native affairs. In the very old daye, bo the father of the House told me, the room was set apart for smokers, but as the library progressed it had to be given up to books. There were present Parliamentarians of »v shades, and opponenta of prohibition were by no means wanting. One expected to see there the Taylors and the Ells and the Bedfords, but around the room were the Hon. T. Y. Duncan, the Speaker of the House, Sir William Steward, the Hon. J. Kigg, and the Hon. J. M. Twomey, and Messrs Aitken, Flatman, T. McKenzde, Hardy, Barber, Moee, J. C. Thomson, Hall, Remington, Duthie, Symes, A. L. D. Fraser, Witty, Lawry, Field, Wood, Witheford, Tanner, Laurenson, McLachlan, James Allen, McNab, Harding and Fowlds. The names are not arranged according to the new table of precedence. Mr Laureneon, who evidently has longings towards journalism, likened the clergy to the sands upon seashore in number. From outside the House there were many ladies and lawyers. Once' an interjection from Mr A. R. Atkinson brought a smile to the Premier's face, and Mr Seddon, who perhaps likes the ex-member for Wellington better out of the House than in it, had a few words to say on the interference of lawyers with legislation. Probably the colony never sent a moTe representative deputation to wait on the leader of its legislature. The Premier cleared the way by deprecating any reference to matters still irab judice, and then Mr Aitken introduced the speakers. At first Mr Seddon eat leaning on the table, looking very tired, but as Mr A. S. Adams, the first speaker, got to his points, he watched the proceedings very keenly, noting each point to reinforce hie wonderful memory. The whole tone of the interview was dignified,, cordial and earnest. Mr Adams spoke with impressire clearness very briefly of each of his dozen points, but very forcibly. He sought on behalf of the deputation (1) an amendment of the law so that in future no poll should be declared void on a technical irregularity not the fault of the people themselves; (2) that when a poll has been declared void a new poll should be taken immediately; (3) the abolition of the provision that half the electors on the roll must vote to secure a valid poll; (4) the abolition of the practice of counting invalid votes in the total, when calculating the proportion of votes cast for each issue; (5) the punishment of incompetence or carelessness on the part of responsible officials; (6) legislation prohibiting the granting of new club charters,, and directing the revocation of charters in a district in which no license should" be carried; (7) the abolition of bottle licenses and provision for making wholesale and accommodation licenses subject to the reduction vote; (8) the abolition of packet licenses; (9) a stricter definition of the word "bar"; (10) the prevention of the sale, of liquor in native areas.

The Rev. Walker followed on the lines of his interviews and letters, which have been published in the South, asking, inter alia, for a small committee of enquiry to gather evidence regarding •irregularities throughout the colony. He asked also for the reduction of the "effective vote" from 60 per cent, to 55 per cent. Of the other speakers quite* the most impressive was the Rev. T. G. Hammond, whose appeal on behalf of the native race was earnest and touching. The Rev. F. W. laitt, in urging the necessity for carefully protecting ballot papers, told a story of a van load of papers which had been left standing outside the door of an hotel at dusk.

Mr McLachlan's declaration that he was. going to stand by his constituents naturally earned a round of applause, and there was an interesting interlude when the Premier declined to bring in a special bill to validate the Bruce poll, and advised Mr James Allen to take action on his own account.

Mr. Seddon, in replying, expressed Ms appreciation of the reasonable manner in which the deputation had placed their views before him, but he wished to deny that the sympathies of any member or members of the Executive had prevented the law being given effect to an no-license districts. In Clutha the Government had insisted on the law being carried put, and they would continue to make every effort to see that effect was given to the will of the people. The fault did not lie with the Government or those who administered the law; the defect was in the law itself. It was th« bounden duty of the Government to see that the law of the land was perfected and the will of the people given effect to. The deputation had submitted some 50 points to him, and he did not propose to go into them fully at present. They required the earnest and mature consideration of himself and his colleagues. With regard to the request for a fresh poll when the poll had been declared void, he thought the failure of the Legislature to make provision for such cases was purely accidental. The oversight, he thought,, had occurred in attempting to save expense by utilising the machinery provided for the election of local bodies. If Parliament had intended the omission it would have been clearly stated. The question now arose whether, in amending the law on this point, Parliament would make it retrospective. Therein lay the great difficulty. Hβ. only knew of one case, that of native land legislation, in which Parliament had deliberately made legislation retrospective. This brought him to Mr James Allen's request for a bill to validate the Bruce poll. In asking the Government to do that Mr Allen was asking them to do what had never previously been done. (Mr Allen: "Will you give me facilities for bringing in the bill?") Mr Seddon: "You have the same facilities aa the Premier for bringing in a bill." Mr Seddon went on to say that he had endeavoured years ago to do away with bottle licenses. He was entirely with the deputation in regard to carelessness by returning officers. He held it should not be in the power of anyone, wilfully or otherwise, to upset the will of the people. Government officers would be better fitted than temporary men to fill this position. He agreed also that heavy penalties should be imposed for negligence, etc. With regard

to the present, eyetem of hearing licensing poll disputes'by Magistrates, he thought there ought to be some change, but it was not for him to say in what direction. He declared emphatically that club charters should be subject to the will o£ the people. It might be that the Colonial Secretary had not powers to revoke charters in no-license areas, but the sooner that doubt was cleared up the better for all concerned. He would go further than the deputation had done, and say that in prohibition areas he would allow no one to have liquor in his house. Clause 33 would not stop liquor being imported; they would get it unless they were prevented having it in their own houses. He gave place to no one in his earnest desire to save the Maori race, but the King Country was going to be settled by Europeans, and the people would demand the same rights as in other parts of the colony to say yea or nay on the liquor question. (Mr Taylor: "We won't have that. The King Country is, and must remain, a, prohibition are*.") Mr Seddon said the present position was unsatisfactory, but whether the law was to be altered for that one case was not for him to say. If the licensing laws were made applicable in the King Country, and it came under no-license rule, clause 33 would apply, but would require a three-fifths majority *to carry -licenses in that district. He declared that a reference was made in the Governor's Speech to the licensing question.

The Premier's reply was quite sympathetic. The net result was his promise that the deputation's views would be laid before the Cabinet. He impressed upon the deputation the extreme difficulty of legislating satisfactorily with regard to the natives, drawing from Mr Isitt the remark that it was the Auckland wholesale merchant he wanted to get at. Mr Isitt also dissociated himself and his friends from the Premier when the latter declared that the only way of enforcing the law in no license districts was to make the possession of liquor illegal. Mr Seddon found in the Speech from the Throne a promise of licensing reform which no one else could find there.