NEW ZEALAND WINES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 294, 5 September 1908, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND WINES.

SPECIAL LICENSES WANTED. PETITION PREPARED. Our special Auckland correspondent telegraphs:—A petition is now in circulation throughout "Auckland, one section of which will bo signed by persons now engagod in tho vine-growing industry and the other by people gonerally interested. The petition sets out that the Government of New Zealand has spent large sums of money in importing disease-resisting grape stocks to supply to vmo-growors, and that tho Government, at largo expense, has established experiment farms and employed experts to '"'jj ,6 ra P® cultivation.. The petitioners add. that they are anxious to foster tho industry, but under, tho existing law it is practically impossible to obtain a license for tho sale by retailers of New Zealand wine °nty. Yet in every othqr British colony in which grapes are largely grown. licenses are issued for tho retailing of local wine. The petitioners desire that facilities should be given for tho salo by retailers throughout the Dominion of pure Now Zealand wine. The petition also says: "Your petitioners believo that such facilities could best bo granted by issuing to any fit person of good character a license to sell pure wine made from New Zealand grapes only, and that an effort should be made to secure the purity of all wine manufactured in New Zealand and sold under those licenses; and ask that legislation be enacted providing that any fit person of good character may be to be licensed to sell,pure New Zealand wine."'