INDIANS CONCERNED

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 59, 7 September 1945, Page 5

INDIANS CONCERNED

SUGGESTED RESTRICTION

Grave concern at the suggestions made before the Commission that InXans should not be allowed to purchase liquor for consumption' off licensed premises was expressed be. fore the Royal Commission on Licensing yesterday in a statement by the New Zealand Indian Central Association Mr D. McGrath led the evidence. Ti was stated by the association's cP cretliv MB S Jhooky, that there werl approSmately 900 -full-blooded Indian? resident in New Zealand The iQcnHation greatly regretted that inmuries had shown thlt a number of Indians had supplied liquor to Mac,ns to the detriment of that race, but those Indians were only a small minority and were a disgrace to their race. Most Indians in New Zealand were total abstainers, many of them on religious grounds. The associations oojection to the suggested restriction rested on the vital question of the rights of a minority, the evidence continued. Penal proposals of that nature would not have been made against a more powerful or more influential section of the community. Restrictions on Maoris had arisen from a request for them from Maori leaders, whereas the suggested restrictions on Indians were opposed by the Indians. The restrictions on Maoris were imposed for their own protection; the Indians were not in need of any such protection. In any case, restrictions on Indians would not affectively deal with the problem of sly grogging, it was contended. The association's inquiries showed that Europeans were responsible for more trouble than Indians in that respect.