LICENSING BILL

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1926, Page 9

LICENSING BILL

OBJECTIONS OF N.Z. ALLIANCE

REGRET AND INDIGNATION*

EXPRESSED.

At a representative meeting of the New Zealand Alliance standing committee, held 25th August, for the purpose of considering the Licensing Bill, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:—

'•That the standing committee of the New Zealand Alliance expresses its regret and indignation that for the first time in more than twenty years a Prime Minister of New Zealand should have introduced a Licensing Bill conceived almost entirely ! in the interests of the liquor traffic, and appeals to the friends of Keforni throughout the country to spare no legitimate effort to prevent the passage,of this unjust, undemocratic, and reactionary measure in anything like its present form.- , "That the Alliance has never asked for favours at the hands of the present Government or Parliament, or of any other, but merely for a fair deal. The Prime Minister's Bill withholds from the people lhe fair deal of which, the traffic is afraid and further loads the scales in its favour. The persistent request of the Prohibition Party that the third proposal_ which confused the issue and by an unjust method of counting credits to Continuance votes which have been cast against it, should be eliminated from Hie ballot paper, is ignored by the Bill, The Prime Minister turns a deaf ear to this obvious demand jf justice, of democracy, and common sense, but is generous in his concessions to the vested interests which are hoping, with his help, to control the Legislature. AN INGENIOUS DEVICE. "That the direct grant of the trade's demand for the extension of the interva. between the polls would of course be impossible in a House where a 'majority of the members are in favour of maintaining the existing term, but an ingenious device is provided with the intent to secure its advantage for the trade without a viola tion o£ the pledges given by members to their constituents and under the guise or democracy. Under the principal clause of the Bill a referendum is to be taken on the question whether the interval shall be three years as at present or extended to six years, and we shall be told that this is neither unjust nor undemocratic. But the Prime Minister cannot say that he .ias authority from anybody but the trade for the submsision of a proposal _ of which neither he nor anybody else said a single word at the General Election. It is equal-' ly absurd to call a procedure just under which the trade stands to gain everything and to lose nothing. 'Heads—the_ trade wins, and tails —it • doesn't lose' is the kind of fair deal which it was natural to expect from the trade itself, but not from one who occupies the position of trustee for the whote State.

RESTORATION AND SPECIAL POLLS.

"That the provisions for a national restoration poll and for special polls where licenses have been effected by changes of boundaries between wet and dry districts are far too complicated to permit of immediate -judgment. The Alliance lias always considered that after abolishing the liquor traffic the electors should have the chance of voting for its restoration, and, therefore, approves of the principle. But the application of. a sound principle is vitiated by a procedure which apparently would permit of an immense increase in the number of licenses in suburban and other dry areas in licensed districts, and would therefore violate the protection _ which, under the clause prohibiting an increase of licenses, they have now enjoyed, for more than thirty years. The clause relating to special polls makes another provision for the increase of licenses, and also applies the vicious principle of retrospective legislation to a state of tilings which has existed for many years.

"That the Alliance looks with confidence to its friends in the House to honour the letter and the spirit of their declarations in favour of the deletion of the third issue from the ballot paper, the maintenance of the triennial poll, and the resistance to any extension of facilities to a destructive traffic, and to reject all the reactionary proposals which, without the faintest show of having consulted tho people, the Prime Minister has included iii his sinister Bill."