REFORM ASSOCIATION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 55, 13 September 1928, Page 13

REFORM ASSOCIATION

The provisions of the new Licensing Bill were discussed at a meeting ot the Dominion Executive of the New Zealand Licensing Reform Association yesterday, when the following resolutions were carried: — . "That the association expresses the keen disappointment at the reintroduction of the provision of the Licensing Bill confining the issues at the licensing polls to tho two questions of lrohibition and Continuance, thereby depriving the moderate section of their right to declare for reform; and urges the Government, if the middle issue is repealed, to so frame the ballot paper as to protect tho elector from being forced to a choice between the two extremes, and that, to effect this purpose, the ballot paper bo framed in the following form of-question and answer:— ARE YOU IN FAVOUR OF NATIONAL PROHIBITION? I vote: YES. I vote: NO. The voter to strike out the answer to which he is opposed. "That tho association approves the provision in the Bill for the extension of the time between licensing polls as a measure of true temperance legislation, by reason of the improved security of tenure thus guaranteed to those engaged in tho trade, which will inevitably result in improved conduct and service to the public. "That tho association approves the principle of the need for a stable majority provided in the Bill, but maintains that, with a two-issue ballot paper, the proportion of 60 percent, is tho very lowest margin on which Prohibition could be calculated as having sufficient moral support of the citizens of New Zealand to provide the remotest prospect of its enforcement. "That while several important recommendations of the Licensing Reform Association have been disregarded, it nevertheless welcomes, as a measure of reform, the provisions aimed at checking trafficking in licenses, and providing for the improvement of premises and sanitation, and the registration of barmen.''