PARLIAMENT Trust Control Of Liquor : Debate On Second Reading

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 September 1949, Page 8

PARLIAMENT Trust Control Of Liquor : Debate On Second Reading

WELLINGTON, Sept 29. (P.A.).— The purpose of the Licensing Trusts Eill was to give, effect to the vote of the people of Ashburton and Geraldine in the recent licensing poll, said the Attorney-General (Mr H. G. R. Mason) in the House of Representatives this evening, when moving the u pcond reading of the Bill. After a brief debate the Bill was read a second time. Mr R. G. Gerard (Opposition, Ashburton) said he approved of the Bill generally, but it was unfair to the member for the district and to, the people to introduce it at such short notice. Mr Mason: The Bill won’t be rushed. They will have their chance. Mr Gerard: It still could have been introduced earlier. It is not fair to have to speak on the second reading after having received the Bill only 12 hours ago, and before the people concerned have had the opportunity of making representations! ' Mr Gerard said there were at least three provisions that required more •consideration. First, there was the distribution of profits; many of the people who would be customers of the Ashburton trust would be from outside the area in which these would be allocated, and these people should be considered. Second, he thought that the trust’s power to take over land should not cover the club in Ashburton, which the trust would doubtless wish to acquire. Third, there should be some qualification of the wide powers given to the trusts to engage in business. Would the Minister let the Bill go to a committee Mr Mason: Not unless there is some need. Relationship To Commission Mr R. M. Algie (Opposition, Remuera) asked what would be the relationship between the individual trusts and the Licensing Control Commission. Would the trusts be exempt from the provisions of last year’s Licensing Act? Mr Mason: No. Mr Algie said he hoped that there would be no conflict between the trusts and the Licensing Commission. The commission was empowered to fix standards of hotel service, and so were the trusts. It would be absurd if one authority fixed one standard for one pari of the country and another authority had a different standard for some other part. Questions like that could be ironed out by referring the Bill to a committee. Mr Algie said the present Bill gave authority to establish hotels in temporary premises. That was bad. There was a danger that such places would become nothing more than beer houses. If a trust could obtain its revenue wtihout obligation to provide accommodation, then the provision of accommodation facilities would be very tardy. Mr G. H. Mackley (Opposition, Masterton) said that in Masterton, although trust control was carried three years, ago, there.were as yet no open bars or hotels with accommodation conducted by the trust. Although he appreciated the difficulties, he thought they had been exaggerated, and the prime cause of the delay was indecision on the part of the Government. He knew that members of the trust had been battling days, weeks and months on financial and building permits and had not had a very happy time. An adjacent area which had voted for private control at the same time had a hotel fully established at Eketahuna, which was working well. There had been no reports yet to Parliament of the operations of the Masterton and Invercargill trusts for the last financial year. Was the delay with the trusts or with the Minister’s office? Mr Mason: What about the printer? Mr Mackley replied that the Government, if it wished, could expedite the matter. The House was entitled to have those reports before considering the present Bill. Minister Replies To Debate Mr Mason, replying to the debate, said there was great congestion at the Government Printing Office and reports would be laid on the table as soon as they could be printed. As for sending the Bill to a select committee, the House would not be proceeding any further with it thisi week and, if the member for Ashburton found there were important representations to be made from his electorate, opportunity could be afforded for such representations to be heard. Personally, he did not think there would be any.