STATE CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 90, 10 January 1919, Page 6

STATE CONTROL

Sir,—Tour correspondent, Mr. .W. Bv Bayley, has raised the question of State control, ond set in apposition his particular fad Prohibition. makes use of such'loose terms with regard to England as "it was partial Prohibition." The phrase' "partial Prohibition" coming from a schoolmaster is so much like the "extreme limit" phrase, that I am amazed that a schoolmaster should use it. If it is Prohibition, it is Prohibition, (here can be nothing partial about it. If it is the limit, it is folly to use the name "extreme limit."

But fb the point. The Liquor Control Board of Great Britain imposed restric-, tions ujion the hours of'sale throughout three-quarters of the area of Scotland, Wales, and England. On tho other portion no restrictions whatever wore imposed. Restrictions ore, however, no£ Prohibition, and the Linuor Board of Control is justly entitled to take the credit for the reduction of convictions for intoxication. Indeed, the statistics published in your paper yesterday morning show that whereas in 1914 there were 183,000 convictions, there were in 1917 only <iG,0l)0. Thnt shows that Great Britain was too busy to go in for the luxury of over-indulgence, and it- also shows that tho restrictions imposed by the board were beneficial. The limitations imposed by the board; however, did not mean Prohibition, and it is shown by the drink bill of tho United Kingdom. Mr. George B. Wilson, sec-: retary for the United Kingdom Alliance, computed -the drink bill. 1914, at one hundred and sixty-four millions. In 1917 the drink bill was two hundred and fifty-nine millions, and the increased expenditure was due to the increased taxation by which Mr. Lloyd George said "that everyone who drank a glass of beer was contributing the silver bullet wherewith to destroy the Germans." Tho Liquor Central Control Board'have the power to close publichouses and clubs, to regubite the hours of opening, to regulate the transport and rlie lrunuK focture, and to 'purchase licensed, 'or other premises for the. purpose of carrying on the liquor business. The board has expended millions of money in the course of its work, ond in the case of the town of Carlisle, to which Mr; Bayley refers, the chairman of the board, Lord d'Abernon, reported that iso successfully had this State jmrchaso of all tho liquor interests and breweries in Carlisle been, that it was able to pay fifteen per' cent, on the capital invested after paying all liquor charges in the way of local taxation, ot general taxation, and all management of foodstuffs account. . . !

The success of the- Carlisle experiment has been extonded in othrr places, and had it not boon for the opposition of the prohibitionists in Great Britain, State control would have been an established system in Great Britain to-.

day, but it is gratifying to know that the prohibitionists, who as Parliamentarians wore keenest in their opposition ta Lord d'Abernon's policy, have received their deserts,. in that at the'last, elections they were air pitched into the political dustbin, so to (speak. Now. the nrohibitionists in New Zealand are opposed to State control, and they are ready, to throw away four.and a half millions of this country's money— to which they will contribute very littls themselves—as well as sacrifice a million and a half of the country's revenue for the purpose of giving vent to their fad, when by the expenditure of perhaps another two and a half millions we could institute a system of State control, with similar results, I have no doubt, as those obtained in Great Brit&i.ii under the Control Board there established by the Government. This was Mr. justice Herdman's idea when ha was in Parliament as Mr. A., L. Herdman, the member for Wellington North. This is the view which the enlightened ond advanced temperance advocate ha 3 atlopted. This is the view which men like Sir d'homas Whittnker, Sir W. Comptan-Rickelt, and other leading prohibitionists of Great Britain have adopted. This is the view of Mr. ■ Lloyd George,'who has been converted from, extreme prohibitionist to State control opinions on the liquor question. • It is only left for the prohibitionists of New Zealand to be lagging behind in .the rear of temperance reform.—l am, etc.i •'• SILAS STARK. [This letter has been condensed.!