CLEAR-CUT ISSUE WAITED.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1923, Page 5

CLEAR-CUT ISSUE WAITED.

Resolutions regarding questions of control of the liquor traffic in the Dominion were put before a large gathering of citizens m the Salvation Army Citadel last evening- at a meeting held under- the auspices of the New Zealand Affiance,' AH. \V. D. Hunt prssiding, and were earned by unanimous vote after the , points at issue had been the subjects of addresses and discussion Sir Robert Stout spoke of the moral duty ol the Government and people of the Dommion to see that the pledge made to the Maoris that alcoholic liquor would not be introduced into the King Country should be kept, and at thl conclusion of the address the meeting, by resolution, expressed itself emphatically of the opinion that the liqour traffic should not be licensed in the Kin e Country, and begged the Government to maintain the national honour unsullied, and protect the Natives of the King Country br holding f as t to the pledge given and duly proclaimed and gazetted in 1884. Ihe new scheme of corporate control recently brought before the public was dealt with by Mr. W. R. Tuck, of Auckland who maintained that the system would not only be undemocratic but anti-democratic, and that-the placing of the third issue on the ballot paper would cloud the issue and cause confusion. A resolution was then put protesting against the proposal to place corporate control on the ballot paper inatead of the btate Purchase and Control issue and stating that "the votes of the people clearly show that the time r» s arrived for a ballot-paper with, two. issues only, namely, Prohibition versus Continuance, since less than 6 per cent, of the voters showed aiiv interest at all in Government control. The motion was carried unanimously, lhe meeting further recorded its opinion that the active partnership of the State in the liquor traffic as proposed by the corporate control schemo was morally indefensible, and constituted a- grave menace to the welfare of the Dominion.