LICENSE V. NO LICENSE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 203, 25 August 1908, Page 3

LICENSE V. NO LICENSE.

: '•"■.."■ Wo the Editor.) Sir,—Your valuable paper of the 19th inst. contained three letters having reference to the above, on which, with your permission, I propose making some comment, taking them in order as they appeared. Mr Ma«dermott, in effect, says: "We have one day of No-license (Sunday), which we now enjoy." Igo further, than that, sir! There are seven days of 24 hours each to every week, making a total of 168 hours per week. In that time we have, for license 96 hours, and for No-license, 72 hours, under precisely the same conditions mentioned by Mi- Macdennottj but even this respite neither stops eating nor drinking, not even on Sundays. Judging by his comparisons, Mr Macdermott would go the length of shutting up every business, every day in the week, Sundays included, in order to get at hotels. He seems to forget that licensed premises are closed for the sale, of liquor (except to those who are entitled to be supplied) on Sundays, and at other times, in common with and for the same reasons that other legitimate and lawful businesses are suspended, viz., to give licensees, proprietors, and their employees, the rest and respite to which they are entitled. I see nothing new in Mr French's letter to warrant a reply. Its contents are simply a repetition of assumptive matter and padding, twaddle such as Mr Ross says we are accustomed to read and hear so frequently, that it is looked upon now, to use theatrical parlance, as mere "gag." Mr Walsh, in his anxiety to discount my statement of facts and figures with regard to Clutha, resorts to distortion, and in doing so he credits mc with saying "That the sly-grog sellers held the balance of power." I neither said nor inferred any such thing. Mr Walsh, instead of quoting mc rightly, has placed a construction on what I really did say to suit his own purpose. In his concluding remarks, Mr Walsh evades the real point at issue with regard to Grey Lynn and No-license. He was careful not to say that the system at present in operation is highly unsatisfactory and therefore unsuccessful. To sum up, Sir, I am of opinion that the three correspondents I have referred to belong to the "Don't know what they want party, nee Prohibitionists"—a combination which at one time were looking for "Prohibition," and when it was offered to them, they said. "That means no liquor; oh, no thank you. we've changed our minds, we don't want that, we find it won't work, so vre will accept (and they did in 1904) Jsolicense, and plenty of liquor, because wo don't mind how much drink is consumed by mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters, secretly and otherwise, at all times, in homes and in all other places, except in or through the legitimate channels of what we ICo-llcense aevocates are pleased to term the licensed bars." —I am, etc., J. S. PALMER, Auckland, 21st August.