RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 162, 7 June 1909, Page 5

RANDOM REMARKS.

!*■ The liquor qu.-'io:: in th>- King > Country is as?urr,i g an entirely new phase owing to recent envelopments, and we have the experience of 8 licensing bench being kept busy dealing with applications for fresh licenses, while similar bodies in most other districts of the Dominion are turning their attention to reducing licenses. Stub an experience is strange enough, anl is calculated to turn Tc Kuitians green with envy, when they contrast their position with that of such favoured districts as Mokau, Awakino, and Raetibi. .

By a strange irony of fate it was the application of that unholy law under whhh Te Kuitians are squirming at present that led to the discovery the districts mentioned did not come within the scope of the no-liccnse proclamation. In defending a liquor case the defendants* solicitor discovered that the district in which the breach of the law was alleged to have occurred had been made Crown land prior to the fateful proclamation, which constituted the King Country a Native no-H----cense area.

Naturally every other district within the proclaimed area immediately found its inhabitants searching the record?, and eagerly comparing dates with a view to more intimate knowledge of the conditions as applied to each locality. Antiquity undoubtedly has its merits, but the sentiment of certain enthusiasts for ancient title deeds in various districts is reported to have soared to veneration. No more will the unsaleable thirst go unquenched; no longer will the King Country reveller be disconsolate in the morning, while in future the ordinary resident can harbour unashamed the convenient demijohn, without fear of being called upon to show cause why he should not contribute to the revenue in the shape of a £2O fine.

But alas! Such liberty is granted only to the few whose title deed* are sufficiently aged to entitle them to respect. Before the date of the proclamation is a period fraught with untold possibilities for the King Countryite, and it will henceforth be regarded with tnat respect which only extraordinary circumstances can call up. And what about the prosecutions that were upheld in the favoured districts before the circumstances were discovered. Will the convictions be quashed, and the fines remitted; and will the people who were sentenced to imprisonment under the Act, have grounds for taking actions for damages? Speaking to the point it is high time the whole question was taken in band, and the present ridiculous position remedied. It is to be hoped the new development will stir the Government to active interest, and assist towards having the district placed under the same conditions with regard to local option as the rest of the Dominion. The game of golf seems to flourish at Te Kuiti, and numbers of the residents arc becoming expert in the art of "foozling," "topping." "slicing," and other branches of the game. Playing "through the green" is a science as yet unknown to local enthusiasts, though numbers of the club members have been seen searching hopelessly in the neighbours back yards for lost balls. Up to the present playing through a wire fence seems to be the highest flgiht of the local golfer, while walking through the Tokipuhuki swamp is a common phase of the disease. Bogey is spoken of with bated breath, and judging from the remarks frequently heard is destined for severe treatment if ever be dares to appear in person. One excitable member threatened to top him with his niblick, but was advised to slice him with his cleek. All of which strengthens the writer in his resolution to play nothing so borrsomc 83 a foursome.