King Country Chronicle. Friday, July 7, 1939. THE CHURCH ON THE LIQUOR LAWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4807, 7 July 1939, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Friday, July 7, 1939. THE CHURCH ON THE LIQUOR LAWS.

The demand for an inquiry into the liquor laws of the King Country is growing. Every local newspaper circulating in this area has expressed itself in no uncertain terms on this matter. The Waitomo Licensing Committee including a Magistrate well informed on the effect" of the liquor restrictions, and one ardent temperance advocate, have denounced the present system as compared with the system operating in licensed areas; local bodies have shown themselves to be opposed to the present system, and the Mayor of Te Kuiti, Mr. H. T. Morton, has taken a very definite stand on the matter; and now, perhaps most important of all, the abuses which the present system does and must give rise to, have prompted the church to take up the matter and the Waikato Diocesan Synod has asked that the Minister of Justice should institute an enquiry. The ready support given to Mr. V. R. Smith, of Pio Pio, from those of the Synod who have had experience of King Country conditions must go a very long way to convince the people of the remainder of New Zealand that a revision of the liquor laws in this no-license area must be a matter for urgent enquiry. The opinions expressed in such a" body as the Synod must command the highest respect on a matter of this nature. Here at least there cannot be the slightest suspicion of there being an axe to grind; there can be no private or parochial interests to cloud the issue, the members of the Synod being solely concerned with the moral aspect of the case. This being so, the legislature must give heed when Mr. Smith says he is convinced that licensing and proper control of liquor are necessary in the interests of both pakeha and Maori; when the Rev. W. G. Bird, of Ohura, considers that something must be done by the church to voice the disapproval of the people at the local liquor laws; when the Rev. E. W. Hancock says that under the present system liquor enters into every phase of life in the King Country; and when the Rev. Noakes says that one of the evils of the sly-grog market is "doped" liquor, and the sooner this traffic is stopped the better it will be for all sections of the community. It is true that there were voices raised against the licensing of the sale of liquor in the King Country, but with one exception these were made by people having no experience of the conditions ruling here. One local resident, the Rev. W. T. K. Skey, simply said that there was no more drinking in the King Country than elsewhere, a statement which would be keenly disputed by the police, and we have Bishop Cherrington maintaining that conditions in the King Country are worse than elsewhere. It is noted that yet another alternative to the present system, the Carlisle system, has been advocated by Canon Kayll, of Waihi, but one of the provisions suggested, that no liquor would be sold off the premises, must inevitably mean the continuance of the sly-grog menace, though perhaps in a slightly mitigated form. The suggestion that commends itself to us as worthy of investigation is that the local bodies of the King Country should appoint a controlling board to conduct bars, profits to be distributed to those local bodies on a valuation or other appropriate basis. But the system to be brought into operation is not what should really concern us at the moment. The question is, first and foremost, what is the position in regard to the consumption of liquor in the King Country as compared with other areas? The answer is definitely that conditions are much worse here than elsewhere. This fact any enquiry committee would very quickly ascertain, and it could then continue by considering the merits or demerits of the various systems, including the ordinary licensed house system, that may be brought before its notice.