LEGALISING BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 290, 7 December 1932, Page 7

LEGALISING BILL.

LIQUOR IN AMERICA. Proposal to Alter Alcoholic Content. BARE MAJORITY SUFFICIENT. (United P.A.-Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Received Iβ noon.) WASHINGTON, December 6. Legislation to legalise and tax the sale of 2.75 beer and wines, was drafted on Tuesday by Mr. James Collier, chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, as a basis for the hearing of evidence beginning on Wednesday. Mr. Collier explained that the alcoholic percentage set was chosen simply as a basis on which, to work. It will be for the committee to determine the content desirable. The same applies to the tax rate, he added, noting that his bill would levy 5 dollars per barrel on beer and 20 cents per gallon on natural grape wines made without the addition of distilled spirits. Only a majority Is reqtfired in the House and the Senate to enact such a measure as compared with a two-thivds vote needed for the approval of the constitutional amendments, such as that rejected on Monday. Explaining some confusion regarding the liquor law procedure, an American resident in Auckland this forenoon eaid that under the Voktead Act the alcoholic content of beer- was % of 1 per cent. That could be altered by a majority vote of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Should the question of an infringement of the Eighteenth Amendment (the Prohibition law) be subsequently raised, the issue would then be carried to the Supreme Court of America.