The Press Wednesday, November 9, 1927. The Licensing Problem.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19153, 9 November 1927, Page 10

The Press Wednesday, November 9, 1927. The Licensing Problem.

The long-awaited Licensing Bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by the Prime Minister last night. Whatever anyone may have expected, everyone will be surprised : by the contents of the Bill and by • the statement which the Prime Minister i made concerning it. Last year's Bill proposed no fundamental change except the taking of a popular vote to determine the period that should elapse between one licensing poll and another. The Bill now before the House contains three fundamental proposals: (1) that the licensing poll shall be taken at each alternative General Election, (2) that there shall be only two issues submitted to the electors —Prohibition and Continuance, and (3) that a 55 per cent, majority shall be necessary for the carrying of Prohibition. The Bill, Mr Coates explained, is " in no " sense a Government measure. - ' The " proposals," he said, " are the outcome "of my own consideration of the " question." Although the Bill is "in " no sense a Government measure/' Mr Coates seems to have said that he is determined to get some sort of Bill passed even if the House must sit until Christmas. This can only mean that he is not after all bringing in the Bill in his capacity of private member, but in his capacity as Prime Minister, because no private member, nobody except the Prime Minister, can say that the House shall keep on sitting indefinitely. Exactly where Mr

Coates stands in the matter is accordingly not easy to see. Perhaps he has resolved that it is time that an amending Bill became law, and certainly it is time. But what the country requires is not just an amending Act, bnt an amending Act based upon full investigation and thorough consideration. We long ago advised —and we are glad to find one of our own local contemporaries supporting the advice—that the Government should equip itself with the fullest information concerning the liquor laws in other countries. It is doubtful whether any satisfactory treatment of the liquor question can be managed without such a preliminary study.

In the meantime we have Mr Coates's Bill. An extension of the time between polls is much to be desired, not only because the triennial, poll tends to disturb the natural current of politics and operates against the advantages which would result from stability in the licensed trade, but also because it is almost on the face of it absurd that public opinion should be tested at such short intervals. The proposal that a 55 per cent, majority should be necessary to the carrying of Prohibition is also a step in the right direction, but the necessary majority ought to be much greater than that. It is wrong that any majority should be empowered to dictate the diet of a minority, but if a majority is to have this power of coercion in such a matter it ought at least to be a majority large enough to be accepted as representative of a fixed and overpowering public conviction. By way of reconciling the Prohibitionists to the new majority proposal Mr Coates proposes to eliminate the third issue. He makes this proposal on the untenable ground that the support given to " State Con- " trol" has convinced him that the retention of the third issue " can hardly "be justified." The fifty thousand people who voted for State Control are only some of the very large number of people who hate Prohibition and are at the same time discontented with the present method of supplying the public's legitimate demand for fermented liquor. These people have as good a right to record their opinion as the Prohibitionists or the supporters of the Trade as it exists at present, and to eliminate the third issue will be to disfranchise a large section of the people. Moreover, the elimination of the third issue amounts to the affirmation of a doctrine which has been rejected in every country except America, namely, that there is no alternative to the traditional licensing system except Prohibition.