The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1909. LICENSING LAWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14916, 11 February 1909, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1909. LICENSING LAWS.

We confess that wo are not at all clear as to tho identity of tho gentleman who lias just, reported to the Parliament of Western Australia on the licensing systems of Victoria and New Zealand. His visit to tho dominion does not appear to have roused any interest here, and perhaps ho avoided publicity so that he might be able to conduct his investigations peacefully. His praise of the Victorian svstom is not undeserved. The Licenses Reduction Board lately reported that in two years it had closed over two hundred hotels, tho average amount of compensation paid being about £ooo. Under tho old system it was difficult to close unnecessary houses because tho method of assessing compensation speedily exhausted the funds available. Tho present compensation fund is provided by the, hotols themselves, a levy being made of 3 per cent on the amount of liquor sold. According to the “ Review of Reviews,” the houses closed by the Reduction Board carried on a bar trade valued, in the aggregate, at £IOOO a week, but that must surely bo a modest estimate. ‘‘There is no doubt the Board is doing its work well,” says tha “Review,” “but the suppression of local option is a hindrance to educational work being carried on during the fourteen years specified from the passage of the Act in 190(5, and a curtailment of the rights of the people. ! The amount spent oh liquor in Victoria is three and a quarter millions, which is a. little more than half the total for tho year 1890, so that tho efforts of temperance workers and tho effect of bettor legislation, as the result of their work, are having good effect.” The consumption of alcohol in tho State was declining, it seems, before the new system came into force, but the present campaign is undoubtedly producing excellent results. Every State school has temperance charts and homilies hung on the walls, so that tho abstinence movement commences with the children. Tliero are no statistics available, unfortunately, to show how tho present consumption of alcohol in Victoria compares with that in New Zoaland, and we are inclined to think that a close comparison would show that Victoria has more hotels in proportion to population than we have. At any rate, the available statistics go to prove that New Zealanders consume less alcohol i>er head than do the Victorians, though at first sight it might appear that there is less drunkenness in the Australian State than there is here. Tho danger of drawing conclusions from police statistics is well exemplified by tho comparison of tho two countries in tho matter of convictions for drunkenness. In New Zealand in 1906 9486 charges of drunkenness were heard and 9420 convictions were recorded. The convictions, excluding cases concerning Maoris, wero 10.52 per 10,000 of the population. In Victoria the convictions were 0n1y.7.79 per 10,000 of the population. But while it is notorious that in New Zealand a conviction is entered in practically every case, in Victoria, out of 14,029 cases, only 9529 convictions wero entered, the explanation being that first offenders are invariably discharged without conviction. Averaging the figures for tho years 1901 and 1906 wo find that in Victoria the consumption of spirits was 0.7 gal per head, of wine • O.Sogal per head, and of beer 12.04. gal per bead of the ■population. In New Zealand during the same period the consumption of spirits never in any year exceeded 0.734 gal per head, of wine O.loOgal per head and of beer 9.085 gal per head. These figures are from our own “ Year Book.” Tho conclusion is forced upon us that there is more drinking in Victoria than in New Zealand, and in comparing tho two licensing laws wo have to remember that tho need for the reduction of licenses is more insistent in Australia than it is here, and that the sting has been drawn, to a great extent, from the reduction vote in the dominion by the fact that thcro lias been n. very marked improvement in recent years in tho general conduct of the hotels.

Ib is perhaps natural that a foreign, observer should prefer tho Victorian system, because it produces moro immediately visible results in the reduction of superfluous licenses. But tho intention of the Victorian legislation is rather different from that of our system. Hero wo have given the people themselves tho right to say directly whether or not they will liavo licenses in their districts. AYo have not complicated the issue by providing compensation,, although it has to be admitted that tho Victorian method of making tho licensed houses provide their own compensation fund obviates a difficulty that retards the movement for reduction and no-license in New Zealand. Here, however, wo are dealing with the liquor trade as a factor in our social life. In Victoria the people are content, lor tho moment, to be closing bars that are obviously.

unnecessary or undesirable. IVlion Mr Carson discusses the effects of no-license in the dominion we are compelled to question the reliability of his sources of information. Ho finds, coincident with the slow closing of licensed houses, a gradual increase in the consumption of alcoholic liquors. But this increase has occurred in a period of abundant prosperity. Lord Rosebery, talking of thrift recently, commented oil the evidence of the savings banks’ returns, and said, that the time of thrift is the time of depression. We have our own experience to confirm his theory. It will not be surprising to find that there was a decrease in the consumption of alcohol in the dominion even during the past year, before tho pinch of hard times had compelled the people to curtail their expenditure on luxuries. Tho cabled summary of Mr Carson’s report is necessarily brief, and probably his conclusions have been modified and explained in the full document, but the digest furnished by the Press Association certainly docs not state tho whole truth concerning the licensing, system in New Zealand.