The Licensing Issue

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 6455, 12 November 1927, Page 8

The Licensing Issue

Official prohibition reviews, the Prime Ministers licensing proposals with more than the usual amount of tact. It congratulates Mr. Coates upon his decision that “ the continued inclusion of the State purchase and control issue can hardly be justified, as it is not a live issue,” and it “ appreciates ” his statement that so far as he is concerned “ the House will remain sitting until Christmas provided licensing legislation ca.n be thrashed out and a satisfactory solution reached.” More than this, official prohibition is gratified to have “the repeated assurance of the Prime Minister that licensing legislation will be left to the free and untrammelled vote of members of the House.”

This admirable tone is maintained even when it is condemning the six-year poll, the fifty-five per cent, majority and the permissive sale of liquor in dining-rooms up to ten o’clock at night. ‘ In conclusion,” it says in rounding off an admirably restrained statement, “ we look to those members of Parliament, who at the last election declared themselves as opposed to any increase in the facilities for the manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic liquor, to see that such retrograde proposals as are contained in the present Bill arc defeated when the Bill is in the committee stage." The New Zealand Licensing Reform Association on the other hand criticises the Prime Minister’s proposals with much less restraint than does the New Zealand Alliance. It was in the field early with a resolution expressing “ its amazement at the iniquitous proposal contained in the Licensing Bill for the deletion of the third issue, thereby disfranchising a large and rapidly growing body of thought in the Dominion” and, on behalf of the moderate electors, calls on Parliament “to resist this violation of the principles of democracy.” To this resounding challenge Mr. D. M. Findlay, a vicepresident of the Licensing Reform Association, adds on his own account the statement that it has come to him as a “ great shock ” that the Government “has sacrificed the principles of justice and democracy on the altar of political opportunism,” and has “ wasted another opportunity to legislate in the interests of true temperance in New Zealand.”

Of course the Licensing Reform Association does not yet carry quite so much weight with the politicians as does the New Zealand Alliance, and maybe its zeal for State Control has done less good than harm to the alternative proposal; but without going the length of endorsing its denunciation of the elimination of the third issue, it is easy to understand its indignation at the proposal to extinguish the raison d’etre for the Association’s existence.

The “Evening Post” gives unstinted praise to Mr. Coates’ Bill and to its author. “Taking the sole responsibility upon his own shoulders," it says, “ the Prime Minister has made a courageous attempt to cut through the tangle of liquor and anti-liquor party interests. Though we may not agree wholly with his proposals, we recognize his sincerity and we welcome the straightforward appeal which he has made to other members to forget prejudices and strive for an acceptable solution. It remains to be seen whether members will respond, or whether by insistence upon 100 per cent of their own desires, they will defeat any attempt to remove the worst features of the present law.”

Regarding the provisions of the Bill itself our contemporary thinks is probable “that the best proposal in the Bill, the extension of the interval between polls, will meet with the hottest opposition. Yet,” it says, “this proposal is fully justified. The fight at each general election has clouded the political issues, and the shortness of the guaranteed tenure has made it impossible to demand from licensees the radical improvements desirable in the Trade. Moreover, this triennial vote as the statistical records show, has been to no purpose.”

In Hie meantime the principal topic of discussion and speculation in the House is the licensing issue, Both parties are busy forming committees and drafting amendments in order to be prepared for the committee stage of the Bill. There arc the usual rumours and predictions, and it is claimed that there will be a majority of members in favour of the two-issue ballot paper as well as for the fifty-five decision poll. Another rumour is that an amendment will ho introduced substituting “continuance” and

“State purchase and control" for “continuance” and “ prohibition.” Even if such an amendment were introduced its fate must be obvious. The second reading of the Bill, which will probably bo taken Monday or Tuesday, will throw further light on the subject.