LICENSING REFORM

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 250, 21 October 1924, Page 8

LICENSING REFORM

THE PARLIAMENTARY REPORT CONDEMNED BY ALLIANCE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. Tlie standing committee of the New Zealand Alliauce to-day discussed the licensing proposals contained in the Parliamentary committee's report. It was resolved to enter an emphatic protest against the general tenor of the report as it wa-s "plainly inspired by the complete subservience of the majority of the committee to the interests of-the trade." In particular, the standing committee declared its opposition to clause 1, providing for redistribution of licenses; clause 7, suggesting a four years' interval between the carrying of prohibition and its going into effect; clause 8, providing for a nine years' interval between polls; and clause 11, providing for expended facilities for the consump- j tion of liquor in clubs, hotels, nnd restaurants. The committee expressed its indignation that even "the most outrageous and ridiculous demands of the trade should have been solemnly and slavishly echoed in the report, and that the reasonable desires of 300,791 prohibition voters and the rights and interests of the people should have been completely ignored." It was reported that messages received from different parts of the Dominion indicated that prohibition sentiment throughout the Dominion was unitedly opposed to the retrograde proposals that had been brought down. The committee resolved:— "The New Zealand Alliance welcomes the Legislature Amendment Bill, No. 2, providing for the compulsory registration of electors. It urges the Government to provide for such enrolment to lie conducted exclusively through Government officials, and in polling booth ureas. It trusts that the bill will finally contain measures for the prevention of dual voting and like abuses prevalent under the present system, and urgog a system of voting in polling booth areas as an effective means of diminishing these practices."