The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1922. LICENSING LEGISLATION.

Evening Star, Issue 18031, 27 July 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1922. LICENSING LEGISLATION.

A " vert interestin'! ” discussion is ©xpectei by the Prime Minister on, the report of the Select Committee on Reform cf the licensing Laws, which will probably bo presented 'this week. The dis- . cussion may be interesting, and -it may be useful to the Government if Ministers need more time still to prepare their Bills for the session. It is not certain that'it will have any other usefulness. It is a most, curious procedure which the Government has ’followed in this business. The setting • up of the committee early , last session plainly implied the possibility : of changes being desirable in the licensing law, and a first report of the committee, made when it asked that its commission should be extended to enable it to take evidence during the recess, was to the effect that alterations were desirable." If •the law is bad, the natural thing to do would be to amend it before the poll on the licensing question is taken at the ' end of this year. The Prime Minister, however, has always discouraged the suggestion that any important amendments of the Licensing Act. will be • made this year, and he states now that there wdll.be no licensing legislation during the present uession. If Prohibition, should happen to • be passed, theref ore, in December next, all the work of the committee will have been * waste of time. If a. licensing system needing improvement still exists alter next election, a new House may be expected to have its own ideas on the sub- * ject < f and the discussion of present mem-

bora on this committee's report, if pot the report itself, will bo the merest futility. The licensing law, more particularly in its reference to the triennial polls, has been so often altered during recent years as to leave room for confusion in no small nufnber of minds as to what it provides for' to-day. Prohibition, with compensation to the "trade,” was nearly passed at the special poll taken in April, 1919, hi accordance with the recommendations of the Efficiency-Board, when only two issues were submitted to the electors. Thb situation was only saved then for the opponents of a compulsorily ‘‘dry’ New Zealand by the, soldiers’ .vote, which caused a civilian majority of 13,895 votes debatable “reform” to be converted into a total-minority of 10,362. At the pod taken in-the following December, which, till the law is altered, will provide the pattern for future referenda on this tion, the new issue of State and Control was introduced, with the provision that either that proposal or Prohibition, before it could Ifce earned, would have to receive tlm support of an absolute majority of -all the valid votes that were registered. In the event it was only some 32,000 votes that were cast for State Control. Prohibition—this time without compensation—was defeated by the,reduced margin of 3,262 votes on a total poll of 543,752, as compared with 518,016 at the April plebiscite. To the plea of the New Zealand Alliance that the State Purchase and ' Control issue should bo eliminated from future ballot I 'papers-two objections can bo very strongly urged. First, the vote registered for the new option at its first introduction was not nearly equal to that which might reasonably be expected for it when that issue becomes as wed known as the others and is supported by a nomparable organisation, or to that which, ca its merits, it would deserve. In the second place, something more than, a bare majority on a ballot paper should be required for such a revolutionary change us Prohibition to ensure that it would he more than a dangerous farce. The ' American Constitutional Amendment was required to be earned by much more than a bare majority, and if Prohibition had been carried in Now Zealand in the conditions which were threatened in April, 1919, so that believers in a most drastic readjustment of manners would have had to coerce unbelievers in the proportions of ten to. nine, Prohibitionists themselves might have had most cause to regret the ease with which their statutory victory was won. It is to be expected, however, that some of the most important recommendations of the Select Committee will refer not to the licensing poll issues, but to the laws relating to the normal sale and consumption of alcoholic liquors.