THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17935, 31 October 1918, Page 4

THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

A deputation representing the Liquor Trade yesterday waited, on the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister and presented a national petition, bearing more than three hundred thousand signatures, . asking that the issue of national ownership should he added to the ballot-paper in any future poll on tho licensing question. The petition sots out that opinions on tho licensing question fall into three groups, favouring the continuance of privato trade in alcoholic liquors, tho State ownership of tho trade, and prohibition. respectively, and it demands that each group should have tho right to express itself at a poll. In 1914 there were 616,000 electors on the rolls in the Dominion, and .521,000 of them recorded votes 1 - on tho licensing issue. If allowance is made for tho largo number of electors that have been sent overseas for military service, it must bo conceded that the size of the trade’s petition is remarkable, and in view of the extraordinary number of signatures it bears, it is difficult to see how t-h!s existence, of a demand for a vote >.i tho issue of national ownership can bo denied, or how Parliament can refuse to amend tho law in the direction of including that issue on tho ballotpaper. It is true that the prohibitionists are confining their present demand to a straight-out vot6 on tho proposal of the Natio....! Efficiency Board, and the petition Urey presented to the Prime Minister and tho Minister of Finance tho other day is hound to impress Parliament, but with the knowledge that such a vote was to bo demanded, a still greater body of the electors has asked that at the same time tho issue of national ownership shall be submitted, and Parliament, if b grants one prayer, can assuredly not refuse the other. As to the form in which tho issues should bo submitted, there should bo no room for serious difference of opinion. sThe petition presented yesterday asks for “ a true expression of tho opinion of the people,” and Parliament will fail in its obvious duty if it does not present the issues in such a way that a' true expression can be obtained. For our own part we have no confident anticipation of a pormament settlement of the vexed question being reached along tho buss of tho present controversy, and wo hope that when Parliament, is considering tho subject, as it will consider it during the current session, it will devote some attention ; to the proposition advanced in the columns of this journal three weeks ago. In the course of four well reasoned articles, it was there argued that the logically sound method of eliminating private trade in alcoholic liquor was to buy tho .trade out. Tho prohibitionists had cleared the? way for this proposal by agreeing to tho payment of compensation in the event of prohibition being carried, and it, was suggested that the logical outcome of that position was State purchase. Wo do not propose to go over the whole ground.now, but the brief statement of the argument is that if the people are dissatisfied with private ownership of the trade they should authorise the purchase of the whole business. Then, havjng purchased it, they should decide whether the business should be continued under State management or discontinued altogether. That, we submit, is the sound and businesslike course to pursue, and w© pub it to the lepresontatives of the people that the proposal we have advanced offers clearcut issues on which a positive and direct expression of tho popular will can readily ho obtained, that it eliminates the last element of hardship or injustice, and that it \ presents tho opportunity for a permanent settlement of the whole controversy.