NO-LICENSE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 273, 11 August 1908, Page 3

NO-LICENSE.

WHAT IT MEANS. ; The local option poll is in tlio near distance, and in a few weeks tlio electors will bo called upon to ■ Bay whether they will liayo license or no-license. How' many who vote really understand what they are voting for? , A.sk tho man- in tho street what nolicenso means, and lip will probably toll you that it means the abolition of liquor,. There nover was a greater mistake. It is customary to refer to the supporters of tho system as "tho temperance.party," and to its opponents as " tho liquor party," but these designations are ' misleading. Both parties claim, with, eqifyl,'reason, to be temperance parties, in that,. tEey are both supporters of truo temperance;-both can, -with equal reason,. be described as liquor parties, in that each advocates a system for the sale of intoxicating liquors. Tho difference between them is purely ono of method. No-license, not Teototalism. When tho Prohibitionists, as they were then called, rejected the famous Clause 9 offered thein by Mr. Seddon, which proposed to mako no-license mean no-liquor, they stood committed to the - principle that the sale of liquor was desirable, and thenceforward they have confined their efforts to altering —and in their view amending—tho method of selling. They have recognised this position in many ways. They have' ceased to call themselves and their official organ by the title - " Prohibitionist," and in season and out of season thoy-,clamour for tho moderate voto on the ground that they are not attacking liquor—they only seek to closo the open bar. Two Systems for the Sale of Liquor.

Thus, when the elector votes no-license, ho does not, as ho has probably hitherto believed, vote for tho abolition of liquor. Ho simply votes for an alteration in the method of sale. His vote means that instead of liquor being supplied in licensed hotels, undor proper supervision, and under stringent condition as to hours and as to supplying drunkards and children,-it will bo supplied to the home, to be consumed under no. supervision other than' that of the consumers themselves, and with no restrictions, except' that it must he. purchased; outsido tho nolicense area. In other words, the money now spent in liquor will still be spent in liquor, but cannot be expended in your own district. Which Is the Best System? .There can be no question as to which is the better of these two methods. While perfection cannot be claimed for the present licensing system, it is immeasurably superior to the .unsupervised selling prevalent in the no-license districts. Instead of decency and order, wo find in these districts the evils of the sly grog-seller, drunkenness in the home, and increased drinking among_ young men and even boys. Every day brings news of some new horror from these districts, and as tho best system is tho ono that makes best for decency and order, wo are forced to the conclusion—which at ono time appeared paradoxical—that tho real temperance party is tho party that votes for continuance. C 905