Evening Post. MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1904.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 99, 24 October 1904, Page 4

Evening Post. MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1904.

PROGRESS OF THE LICENSING BILL.

The Licensing Bill has passed almost unscathed through the ordeal of the Committee stage in the Legislative Council, which it was generally supposed would at any rate try it severely. The reception which the Bill 4 met with on the second reading was of a very lively character, and the debates in Committee were decidedly more acrimonious than those in the Lower House ; bub the bark of the Council proved -worse than its bite, and very little alteration of a substantial character was effected. The AttorneyGeneral deserves congratulation on the judicious combination of fairness and courtesy with which he succeeded in keeping his team in hand. His cue from the first was that any radical amendments would result in the total loss of the Biil, and though this line was very distasteful to honourable members who were burning to show their independence of, and their superiority to, the people's representatives, he succeeded in keeping them to it with surprising success. Of course, no member of the Council was hardy enough to propose the restoration of the absurdities of "clause 9" or the State control referendum, nor was an attempt even made to eliminate the reduction issue which had escaped by so narrow a margin in the House of Representatives. Yet the critical nature of the Attorney-Gene-ral's task is well illustrated by the near approach which a far more drastic amendment than that last mentioned made to being carried. After all the clauses passed by the House had been dealt with, it was proposed by the Hon. Mr. Twomey, who takes his new role as an exponent of "the temperate temperance party" very seriously, that electors should only be allowed to vote for a single issue. Notice had bean given of a similar amendment in the popular chamber, but it had not been proceeded with. The effect of it woHld have been to render the carrying of reduction absolutely impossible, while still leaving the issue on the ballot-paper to create confusion, and it would probably have had the further effect of dividing the forces opposed to the existing status in the matter of licenses almost as seriously vas "clause 9" would have done. Nevertheless it was only by 12 votes to 9 that Mr. Twomey's amendment was rejected, and as the acceptance of it would have in-volved the two chambers in hopeless disagreement, this division may be considered as the narrowest escape that the Bill had. Of the amendments adopted, by far the greater number are mere verbal or consequential alterations necessary to give effect to the actual intentions of the House of Representatives. The most essential of these removed a delightful absurdity in the Cook Islands clauses, to which we were the first to direct attention, and it is characteristic of the slipshod methods of our legislators that not a single member of the Lower House was alert enough to make use of the point even after we had published it. The original clause 28 of the Bill, which proposed to make the importation of liquor by private persons into the Cook Islands illegal, omitted to mention liquor, with the result that, as we pointed out, either the provision was an absolute nullity and applied to nothing, or else it prohibited all trade with the outside world, except by way of export. The clause has now been made less universal in its scope, and more conformable to reason. Another clause, which as originally introduced was a perfect model of bad drafting — that relating to lapsed licenses—has also been greatly improved in form, but in substance it remains exactly what it was when it passed the House of Representatives, and for the reasons which we gave at the time it will be practically inoperative. On the whole, however, the formal amendments made on the Attorney-Gen&ral-'s motion in the Council are of real value, ami-have

done much towards making the Bill a sensible" and workable measure. From the known sympathies of the Council and its treatment of the Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Bills of 1895 and 1896, it was generally believed that the club clauses were those which would prove most objectionable to its members, and the anticipation wwats t realised in the extraordinarily close division on the Hon. Mr. George's amendment. The Bill provides for the observance by clubs of the same hours for the sale of liquors as publichouses, and the Hon. Mr. George proposed, whHe leaving Sunday an " off " day, to extend the week-day hours for clubs till midnight. His motion was only rejected by the narrow majority of one, and if the Bill is re-committed there seems a probability of 11 o'clock being accepted, which would in our opinion be a very reasonable compromise. As the.Council has accepted the main principle involved aad not struck blindly at the whole ebfiuse, we do not see that a difference of an hour or two as to the closing, hour on week-days need put the two , Chambers at loggerheads, and the Council has deady logic on its side when it proposes to put Bellamy's on the same footing. The amendment effecting this object was avowedly supported by some who desired to wreck the Bellamy clause altogether, but we trust that this view will not be taken by the House. {^The work of legislation will not be impaired by the inability of members to recruit their exhausted energies by artificial stimulants during the small hours, and if the, resulting discomfort is so serious as io make late sittings intolerable, it would be a boon indeed to see them abolished altogether. The only other important change made by the Council was the abolition of the bona-fide traveller. We confess to a good deal of sympathy with the puzzled legislator who in desperation dismisses this mysterious personality to the legal limbo whither the ghosts of John Doe and Richard Roe have preceded him. It would be preferable in our opinion to keep him alive if the privileges extended to him could be safeguarded from abnse, but unless this can be done by some new device not hitherto suggested the House is not likely to grieve over his summary dismissal. There seems therefore, no reason now why the Bill should not go on to the Statute-book in a really presentable sha-pe, and the vigour of the Council in sitting up for three consecutive nights till- 11 o'clock, and concluding on the fourth with a wild burst which took them beyond midnight, will then have its reward, as well as the patience and forbearance of the Lower House.