THE LIQUOR PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 243, 13 October 1919, Page 10

THE LIQUOR PROBLEM.

ADVOCATES OF STATE CONTROL REV. MILNE AT TOWN HALL. There was a very fair attendance at the Town Hall Concert Chamber last night to hear the Rev. James Milne, of the Thames, deliver an address under the auspices of the Moderate League on State ownership and control of the liquor trade. The meeting at times took on a very excited tone, but nevertheless the speaker said all he intended to say, reviewing the proposal at length. Mr. Hall Skelton presided in the ; absence of Mr. Mackay, who was indisposed. Mr. Milne said there were two aspects of the temperance question. There was the moral aspect, upon which they were all agreed, for all regretted the sorrow, the misery, and suffering attendant upon intemperance. There was another aspect very important, namely, the economic one. The trade was so strongly entrenched. In view of this what was the best thing to be done? The conservative or trade party maintained that the present licensing system could be amended, but he, the speaker, was of opinion that so long as the element of private profit in the sale was contained in the system of selling liquor it could not be reformed. Another policy, as advocated by their friends, he continued, was to clear off the traffic. This was easier said than done. Besides, it was most questionable whether prohibition contained any prin ciple of reform as being too drastic in its issue. Yet another policy was that in which he had the honour to advocate that evening, namely, State ownership and control of the liquor trade. During the war a Board of Control for the liquor traffic was appointed, and it used restrictive measures, the experiment proving so successful in every way that today an area of some 600 square miles was covered by it. Mr. Lloyd George introduced into the House of Commons j a State Control Bill to apply the principle to England, Scotland and Ireland, but the measure was defeated by the com i bination of the trade and prohibition ! interests, but the Board of Control still continued the beneficent work in the Carlisle area. He mentioned points w> favour 'of State purchase such as that there should be no pushing of sales of liquor in the public houses, as under the State Control Bill proposed for New Zealand the '■ traffic was to be vested in a comi missioner, and it should be thus shorn of political influence. Also there should be no incentive to provide impure liquor. i Arguments against the plea were also met by Mr. Milne. The plea that control was inclined to laxity was met with the argument that the traffic should not : be ' a State department, but be placed in the hands of a Commissioner or Board of Control. In explanation of the moral argument as concerning the proprietary by the people it was said that surely to take hold of the traffic and to adapt to the practical inculcation of temperance was a good one. In the course of the lecture statistics, as furnished by the executive of the iLeague, were submitted, ; - showing that "the total amount of' purchase money I required for the New Zealand trade was ten million pounds. »■-.-„•-