LOCAL OPTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 101, 1 May 1930, Page 9

LOCAL OPTION.

REINSTATEMENT PROPOSED. OTAGO FORWARDS REMITS. • & MOTOR ACCIDENTS INCREASE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDIN, this day. At a meeting of the Otago United Temperance Reform Council resolutions were adopted as follow: — "That this council views with apprehension the large increase in motor accidents caused by drivers under the influence of drink, as the growing cos£ and loss to the community in this matter is becoming alarming. The council therefore asks the Government for legislation which will provide for stricter supervision and the infliction of

much more severe penalties upon offenders." '"That this council deeply deprecates light penalties and non-endorse-ment of licenses when publicans and others are convicted of breaches of the Licensing Act, and further urges upon the Government to have the Acts more rigidly enforced throughout the Dominion." The meeting spent some time in a special conference upon the furtherance of practical total abstinence and prohibition work throughout the province. Special remits, which are to be forwarded to the executive of the New Zealand Alliance annual meeting, were passed as follows: — "That in view of the changed means of transportation, local option should be reinstated, applied and voted on in areas corresponding to the former provincial boundaries." "That where in any licensing district a majority of the electors vote for national prohibition, then in that district the electors shall have the right to elect a committee at the licensing committee election following, which shall have power to reduce liquor licenses up to 25 per cent."