DOMINION NEWS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 33, 26 November 1912, Page 3

DOMINION NEWS.

NEW ZEALAND WINE INDUSTRY. VmCULTUmSTS' BEQUESTS. AUCKLAND, Nov. 23. A deputation representing the viticulture! and winemaking industries waited jon the Prime Minister on Saturday. ' Captain Young, who headed the deputation, poniteu out that tno uractie legislation passed and proposed imposed such restrictions on the winemaking industry as to threaten it with extinction. .Relief was consequently sought on behalf of a large population employed in bringing into profitable cultivation considerable areas of the poorest lands in the Dominion. Another matter urged was the compulsory registration of wine sellers, to ensure the sale of pure New Zealand wine. Unless some protection from the fear of prohibition, which aimed towards abolishing the industry, were afforded, tho country would be a heavy loser and an excellent method of making poor lands profitable would disappear. Mr Massey: It seems to me that you want something more than the fear of prohibition removed. What is it you want ?

j "We want the New Zealand-made [ wines exempted from the operation of the prohibition law," replied a member of tihe deputation. "Is that all you want?" further inquired ,the Prime Minister, to which it was urged that wine licenses be issued in various towns. One member said that he was cultivating five acres, and were the restrictions removed he could comfortably make £loo© a year from the area. If national prohibition were carried he, together with all ofier vignerons, would be ruined. The Government had given girth to this industry, established experimental farms to assist it, and now seemed about to strangle it, was the complaint of tho deputation. The Prime Minister said he had always. understood that the North of Auckland and the East Coast of the Island contained large areas of land peculiarly suitable for wine production, and he saw no reason why the industry should not be encouraged. As a mat te'r of fact, he understood that the consumption of good, wholesome, light wines tended to sobriety among the people rather tthan intemperance. "I am, however, just as strongly of opinion that the production of the villainous stuff, of the effects of which we had an instance at Henderson the other day, should be stamped out, and I believe it has been the use of such liquid tfhat has done so much harm to the genuine winegrowing industry in this country," he stated. Air Massey went on .to say that although he could not personally commit the Government to any legislation, lie would submit the representations of tlie deputation to tho Cabinet and would inform them of the Government's decision before Parliament met next year.

SEARCH FOR CASTAWAYS. WELLINGTON, Nov. 24. After her long stay in Wellington during tlie winter months the Government training ship Amokura, which has recently received a thorough overhaul, sailed for Port Chalmers yesterday, tearing the Heads just before 1 p.m. It is probalc that the vessel will call at one or two )x>rts on the run down the coast. She will take her departure from Port Chalmers on Saturday next for all the outlying islands in search of ]>ossible castaways and to examine tho depots.

AN OLD MAN'S DEATH. AUCKLAND, Nov. 24. An old men not yet identified was found in a weak and exhausted condition underneath some offices at Newmarket on Saturday morning. He could give no account of himself, and was taken to the hospital, where on Saturday night he died.