STATE CONTROL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10369, 9 April 1927, Page 7

STATE CONTROL

CANADA ANIX LIQUOR

A BISHOP'S iTEW

Canada went entirely “dry” in war time. Since then the V estern provinces have reverted to Government control. By 192-6 only Nova Scotia, dry since 1910, New Brunswick, and Ontario remained under prohibition. The former Bishop of Ontario (.Dr. Bidwell) in the current National Review, gives an account or the last phase of the struggle in the richestand most populous of all the Canadian provinces. A Conservative Ministry granted a referendum at the end of 1924 v believing that the referendum would sweep away prohibition. It was, however, disappointed cs the maioritv for prohibition was still 34,000, though it had decreased from 243,000 on the previous occasion. The country districts, most of them “dry” by. local option for some time before prohibition, -had shown that they were not anxious for change. The Ontario Legislature then passed an amendment allowing beer *of 4.4 per cent, alcoholic strength, twice the strength of the temperance “beer.” This did not help much, as Canadians do not drink much beer. The bishop thinks that direct action by the Government is better in questions of this kind, which so acutely and fiercely divide putflic opinion. Bad conditions still prevailed after the amendment, and most respectable people employed their private “bootlegger as they formerly dealt with their wine and spirit merchant. T lie drinking among young people, a peculiar feature of'the prohibition regime, increased. “Bootleggers” made immense profits, one man who was sued for income tax on £16,000 income refusing to pay it because it had been earned by breaking the law. This case he carried to “the Privy Council, where he lost- it.. The Premier (Mr Ferguson) decided to dissolve Parliament. and go to the country on the issue of Government control. This strong man who knew his own mind impressed the people, and he was returned with an unimpaired majority. The system is now about to lie introduced.

“I am inclined to think that in a system of Government control, wisely administered, Canada has found as near a solution as possible,” says Dr. Bidwell. “The saloons were the curse of the country when the traffic -was in private hands. They were just drinking shops, where the liquor supplied was often had, and the iniquitous ‘treating’ system flourished. The abolition of these plague spots was the one benefit of prohibition upon which they were all agreed. They remain abolished under the Government control system. The trade will lie entirely in the hands of the State, and alcoholic beverages will be purchasable only at centres licensed by. the Government. Every citizen of 21 years of age will he furnished on application with a permit, entitling him to purchase a fixed amount of such beverages a -month, and this" permit will be forfeitable -if it ,is improperly used. There will be no pushing of sales, which is so' dangerous a feature, of the trade, a.s long as it remains in private hands, and is therefore competitive. The Government also guarantees the puritv of the honor sold.” The bishop thinks that the danger is that liquor will lie sold at too h , - 7 b a price under this system, and that thus the bootlegger,, tradihg in inferior liquor, will lie 1 (fought back. “The bootlegger will be entirely eliminated,” he says, “only if the Government makes it possible for all to obtain what thev require at a reasonable cost at their, own offices.”