THE Marlborough Express Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JULY 24, 1893. ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXIX, Issue 181, 24 July 1893, Page 2

THE Marlborough Express Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JULY 24, 1893. ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.

The visit of the Rev. Mr Isitt, the Prohibitionist lecturer, to Blenheim, was the means of exciting no small degree of interest m the alcoholic liquor question, and a considerable amount of correspondence pro and con has taken plac« upon it. The agitation is not confined to this district, however, as all over tha colony demonstrations m favor of the direct rote are being held. There are now three measures before Pdrliament direotly bearing on the queetion ; namely Mr McGuiro'g " Importation or Manufacture of Intoxicating Liquors Prohibition," Sir Robert Stout's "Direct Veto," and Mr Earnsbaw'B " Alcoholic Liquors." We have not yet seen these Bills, but the Napier Daily Telsgraph thus "goes through" them :—" McGuire's little Bill is short and to the point. It consists of three olauaes ; the first gives the title to the measure, the second provides that on and after the passing of this Act it shall not be lawful to import or manufacture m the colony of New

Zealand, any intoxicating liquors of any kirni ; and the third clause recites the penalty for breaking the law. In that light and airy style Mr McGuire would dispose of over five millions of invested money m breweries and hotels, and strip several hundreds of people of their employment. In a previous issue we gave the chief provisions of the Direct Veto Bill, a Bill to provide for the discomfort of wealthy tourists, and the great majority of the people of New Zealand, for the sake of pandering to tho pestilent fads of a handful of [persons whose weak stomachs reject a glass of wholesome liquor. Mr Barnshaw's Bill runs into fifty-four sections, some of which are as comic as though they had been cut out of the pages of Punch. It starts by saying that it is not to come into full and complets operation before 1896. Mr Earnsbaw seems to be like the donkey between two bundles of hay. He wants to eat them both at the same time. In framing his measure he tried to preserve the revenue, to please the toetotalier, and to provide beer for those who like it. The result is a wonderful concoction of confusion. It is hardly worth while to go through the whole of it. Briefly, the State is to be the sole importer of all liquors more than three per cent of alcohol, and the Collectors of Customs, a chemical expert, and inspectors are to carry out the Act. There may be licensed manuacturers of wines, beers, and spirits m the colony, but tha Government can be the only buyer. The people m the several electoral districts are to say by means of a local option poll whether there shall or shall not be State bars opened. If a three. fourths vote is m favor of no bar being opened, then there shall be no drinking shop m the district ; if the vote is the other way, a limited number may be established. There is no regulation compelling the barkeeper to keep biß hands from piok-. ing and stealing ; but it is complacently assumed that the State will collar all the profits that now go to the trade. It is expressly stated m this puerile effort at legislation that hotels, previously licensed, shall net necessarily be selected as places m whioh a State bar may be opened. This is rather a cunning device to enable the owner of a whare, if he be of the ' right color,' to get a license to the confusion of the Tory proprietor of s respectable hotel. Of course, this stupid Bill will go flying into the waste paper basket, but why, we want to know, has the colony been put to the expense of printingand distributing the wretched abortion?"