ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1914. THE MODERATE POINT OF VIEW.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 158, 8 July 1914, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1914. THE MODERATE POINT OF VIEW.

Deputations • representing the Prohibitionists , and tihe Trade 3iaving, waited upon the Prime Minister and placed -before him their views on the liquor question, it may have been as* sumed that every possible side of.tlhe question bad been brought under the notice of the Government and1 Parliament. There is, however, a very large section of the people of this country—a majority, we believe—wfho do not make any public exposition of their ideas and desires upon licensing legislation and the subject of Prohibition. This section has been silentfar too long, and wo are glad, therefore, to notice that on Monday last a large and representative deputation, including many prominent business and professional men of iflie city of Wellington, waited upon Mr Massey to place on record the opinions of those who may be called the Moderates, that is, people who are neither Prohibitionists nor, .on the other hand, have a personal interest in the Trade. The chief spokesman for the deputation, Mr A. S. Menteatih, a well-known Wellington barrister and formerly one of the city Members, made a lengthy and well-ireasoned appeal for the exercise of caution and common sense by Parliament when considering the Licensing Bill before the House. The deputation, he said, claimed to be moderate men.in the fullest sense of the word, by which they.did not even mean men who

required a certain amount of liquor for their health and comfort every day, but men who,.generally speaking, believed thati truth and justice always lay between extremes and could never be reached by ramiing to excess in either direction. For

these reasons they held that it was

a serious mistake to pass laws or regulate public affairs entirely in accordance witth the opinions and suggestions of men inspiredby violent prejudices or men whose pei'sonal material interests were involved in the question at issue. But as the Prime Minister knew, those were largely the lines on which our liquor legislation had been framed in Parliament in the past. Mr Menteath- then referred to the misleading character of the ballotpapers, which practically ignored the

opinions of the Moderates. These latter fully realised, he said, that it would not be possible to place all the phases of this question on the ballotpaper, but they respectfully urgod a claim for consideration for those who found it impossible to make a direct deckuration .either, for or against, or that, at any rate, a halt should be called before fresh legislation was enacted placing still further disabilities on that section. Mr Massey knew perhaps better than the^ did, the absolute necessity of organised effort to secure a true record of public opinion at the ballot-box. The lamentable lack of interest shown by the public in matters directly interesting themselves was next referred .to. .On the matter of municipal loans, involving hundreds of thousands of pounds, how often did they not find a total vote re-corded-of a. few paltry hundreds? In this matter of Prohibition they found, from the official figures of the last poll, that only 465,000 valid- votes out of a total of 590,000 electors were recorded, and the point they wanted to make was that the moderate section had never been organised and had therefore never been properly heard. The Prohibitionists have been and always are organised. The brewers and hotelkeepers, on the other extreme, also organised strenuously at election time. "We can safely say," said the speaker, "that neither of those paa-ties miss many votes, but the voice of the great third party has never been truly, heard at the ballot box, and it is on behalf of that unorganised section that we come before you to-day to urge ux>bn you to retain for their protection the iihi-&&-nfihs majority vote." ;

Mr Menteath also dwelt upon the dangers involved by an appeal to "that dangerous standard," the bare majority, and urged that no such laws as one involving National Prohibition should be passed until the State had at hand strong presumptive evidence that they would secure great bienefits to the country as a whole and would entail very few disadvantages. So far, he contended, th© case for National Prohibition was to be regarded as not proven. Specially would the Moderates N object to the adoption of such a system "on the casting vote of / a merely nominal majority, because it would render the position of the country permanently unstable and insecure." We are glad to notice that Mr Menteath expressed the opinion that much can still be done to improve ■•the- system, .-''under which the sale of liquor is at present conductedi We are sorry',that Mr MenteatUi did not enlarge upon this point.. For our ,own part, though strongly supporting a maintenance of the existing majority necessary to carry No-Licensel or'National'Prohibition, we are equally firm in our opinion that many desirable reforms could be effected hi the ; conduct of the business of hotel-keeping and the sale of intoxicating liquor generally. It was -a grave mistake, we shall always consider, that; the "reduction" issue was ah ol ished, for it provided a method by which unnecessary or flagrantly ill-conducted houses could be wiped out of existence, and gave the public at large a certain ■ whiphand over, the Trade which could, on occasion, be wisely, and profitably exercised. ■■>

The second spokesman, Mr"-.J; B. Harcourt, a well-known Wellington business man; long connected with the Chamber of Commerce and similar important institutions in the capital city of the Dominion-,,1' emphasised the grave importance :pfi the fiscal aspect of • the Prohibition question. The revenue derived from .the^ manufacture fend sale of alcoholic beverages in NewZealand amounted. r .to something in the l-egion of a million pounds per animm. A number of secondary industries would be affected by tihe result of the poll on the Prohibition question. Mr 'i; Harcourt reminded the Prime-Minister that apart altogether from the destruction of the important industries of hop, barley, and; winegrowing* the creation of unemployment and the virtual killing of the tourist traffic which would inevitably follow upon -Prohibition, the source of one million pounds of revenue would, completely disappear. This sum would have to be replaced, and what the Moderates suggested was that before Parliament was lasked to vote aye or nay on the proposed reduction of the majority necessary to oariy National Prohibition "jthe Government should ; place before tihe people and the people's , representatives some definite scheme for the readjustment of the country's-finances-should this vast sum of be wiped off the revenue receipts.' To take a'vote' on the majority issueVithoxrfc such a definite pronouncement as he had indicated would be to take,a leap in the dark. Mr Karoonrt's concluding appeal for more information, for the exercise of reasonable1 prudence and common sense is, to our mind, quite unanswerable save by* those prejudiced, unthinking pei'sons who are willing to a-ush the .country into, a financial, catastrophe. "We feel sure," said- this level-headed. Wellington business man, "that the Dominion is i not ih: the position at present to stand the .violent change in its financial system which would inevitably follow upon the carrying of "National Prohibition. We have, during the past year, experienced a, disastrous industrial. disturbance which caused most serious losses and financial disorganisation, both, private and public, and we feel convinced the carrying of National Prohibition, on whatever basis, would be fraught ,\nth graver possibilities thau the people of this country yet realise. We knowthat you share stated that this question of liquor legislation will not be dealt with from a party point of view. ' Nevertheless, the responsibility of administering the country's finances devolves upon the Government, and we hold that in the interests of all_the, people it is necessary that a -definite scheme of readjustment should be-.brought forward boI fore any fr&s3i legislation on the liquor question is dealt with by the House.-' The Prime Minister's reply was satisfactory so f ar as it went, for Mr Massey avowed himself not in sympathy with extremist principles. As for Members of Pavlin-mont, some were-vpledged on the majority: othons were not. All would have, an opportunity of speaking, and voting according to their own opinions, untrammelled by party, ties. 1 He ad mitted the grave importance of the financial aspect, and promised, who-n he moved the second reading of the Bill, to present to tho House the representations wihich had been made, we hope Mr Massey will do morw than he promised. W<? feel, and he should feel, that it is his boundenduty, or that of his col league the Minister for Finance, to inform the House .as to the exact, nature of the • new taxation which would infallibly :' be necesisitatod by the int-F-oduction of ' National Prohibition. The. House should not bo asked to yoU? for a r-e----duction of the present majority without .such information being boforo it; the House has no right to commit the

country to National Prohibition—for that is what, on the figures-" of the last polling, it would amount to— without the country knowing wihat would be th© exacti consequences of so revolutionary a change as would be effected in the country's taxation. Prudence alone, nay, ordinary common sense, must dictate the obtaining and making public of such information ; and we shall be gravely disappointed if this be not forthcoming.