LICENSING BILL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 315, 30 September 1908, Page 7

LICENSING BILL.

"ORGANISED" OPINION IN HYDE PARK ' • A SERIOUS MAJORITY : "POOR HIRELING VICTIMS OF DRINK." (bi tjelegbafs —pit ess'association —corrai gut.) - •' London, September 28. A quarter of a million - people, held a demonstration : on Sunday, in Hyde' Park, : \ against the Licensing Bill. Serentj thousand provincial excursionists who canie by 170 special'trains from all parts of the. Kingdom participated. Fifteen processions marched to - the l'ark, those taking part carrying banners. There* Wore 100 bands present. . ; Ninety speakers, including ;\lr Henniker Heaton (Conservative M.P. for Canterbury), Mr. H. E 'Marks (Conservative M.P. for ■ Isle of TL'anet), and Mr. H. Stavoley-HiL (Conservative M.P. for .Kingswinford division of, Staffordshire), from twenty pi; tlorms denounced tho'Bill. -, V ;A motion was carried, amid tremendous applause, protesting that the Bill i/passed, would- "'ncrease intemperance, wcule violate the rights of property, and wonk interfere with the reasonable liberty of tho community. | ■j; Tho brewing interest secured ;for oxcur- - sionists excessively cheap fares, by guaranteeing the railways against loss .'.'The Times"- says:—"The demonstration was remarkable as an example of skilful .; organisation, but tho great majority pro- *• tested' in perfect seriousness." . Tho "Daily News" declares that the processionists wcto , chiefly free-trippers and poor hireling victims of drink.

A TASK FOR THE IMMORTALS. Both sides aro preparing for the struggle in _ committee, on the Licensing Bill during the -.'approaching session; and a Tecent cablegram indicated that if the Government, with the aid of the guillotine,' forces the Bill through the Commons, Lord Lansdowno and his Unionist Peers-will kill it in the House of Lords. The rejected Liberal candidate at Newcastle-on-Tvne attributed the party's loss of . that seat largely to the Licensing Bill. Undeterred by by-election figures, Mr. Asquith, Prime Minister, and Mr. M'Kenna, First Lord of tljo Admiralty, have declared most emphatically that the Government will stand or fall by the Licensing Bill. Speaking at Pontypool, Mr. M'Kenna admitted that on the introduction of the Bill they had lost some few' adheronts, but more than the losses they might have suffered, they had gained the best men in all parties. Mr. Winston Churchill, President of the Board of Trade, said that tho. Bill was well worth running risks for, well worth losing by--elections for. It was their business as Liberals not,to study private interests, hut the general interests of the State. It was a nobler part to. bring private interests and piivato expectations .into proper , harmony and : into proper subservience to the paramount interest of the commonwealth. The passing of such measures as the Licensing Bill made Liberals immortal.