LICENSING ISSUE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 283, 24 August 1908, Page 7

LICENSING ISSUE.

A UNIONIST COUNTER-BLAST. (dt telegbafh—muss' association'—cori'tttsirr.) •r> ''A .. ' London/! August 21. •■Whatsis designated "The True Temper* anco Association" has been started. It aims at a large scale of reform in re* gard to piiblichouses. • Mr. A. J. Balfour and Mr. Austen Chamberlain support tho new movement. THE OPPOSITION STANDPOINT. The Unionists have criticised the Liberal Licensing Bill as being confiscation. without temperance, and tho new organisation, with its suggestive name, 3s evidently a' Unionist counterblast to the Liberal policy. One of the Unionist watchwords is:' ,r Tou caimot found temperance on injustice"; and Mr. Balfour lias further declared that "it is:impossible to extract from' the most 'critical examination of statistics the smallest support, for the doctrine that tho evils of drink can be mitigated by a diminution of licenses." Mr. Balfour went on to say that it was obvious to any ono that licenses renewable as existing licenses had a real and substantial element of property in them. Could they say that property wnicli tho State regarded as property when taxing it was not to be regarded as property whon the State was taking it away? Ho wished to judge with no harsh judgment those who, misled by tho great and ever-present tragedy of the evils of drink, were willing to grasp at even the most reckless methods by which it was alleged the evil could be mitigated. Those were questions every citizen should ask: "Is the Bill an honest measure ? Can we hope, that it will be an effectual measure? Is it a measure that an honest community could pass? If passed, would it lessen the evils which wo all deplore?"-.