LIQUOR IN AUSTRALIA

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6631, 9 June 1928, Page 4

LIQUOR IN AUSTRALIA

FIGHT FOB PBOHIBITION. .NEW SOUTH WALES CAMPAIGN. SYDNEY, May 31. The campaign in connection with the coming poll on tho question of prohibition in Now South Wales is in lull swing. Neither side is leaving any stone unturned to draw the electors to its meetings, free concerts, for example, as a preliminary bait are among the activities of the “drys” at one centre. The. “wets,” who appear to bo taking no chances, have in their front lino quite a formidable field of speakers, including a clergyman and an exnaval man, Mr. Fred Arlington, who is credited with a reputation as an orator and as an old campaigner in tho liquor war both in Australia and New Zealand. He is said to have such a winning way that he has made many of the leading prohibition fighters his personal friends. To those who have their fingers on the public pulse, the apparent disquiet with which the anti-prohibitionists are viewing the prospects is somewhat incomprehensible. Their chance of defeat looks to bo very remote. Archbishop Kelly, the leader of the Roman Catholic community, has openly described prohibition as “an erroneous extreme.” That is significant in itself, since the faith with which he is associated constitutes an influential section of tho community.

Even prohibitionists recognise that if prohibition is to operate it must bo Australian-wide and be a gradual process, and that their organisation should endeavour to make it a Federal and not a State issue. That the cost, for example, •of carrying out prohibition in a State like Now South Wales will be enormous is obvious, for the whole of the borders of the State adjoining Victoria, Queensland and South Australia- will have to bo patrolled constantly by the police or by other officers especially appointed to prevent the' illicit introduction of liquor from those States

Both sides have, of course, carried the war into the open newspaper columns on the question mainly whether State prohibition, if carried, will be a contravention of the Commonwealth Constitution. In this connection, the prohibitionists appear to have an ally in Professor Sir Harrison Moore, whose work, ‘ ‘ The Constitution of the Commonwealth," is quoted by them. The statement is attributed to him in that publication that in the special case of intoxicating liquids passing into a State the Constitution, in effect, defines the limits of commerce power by providing that they shall be subject to the laws of that State as if they had been produced there. Judging from the activity of both sides and the spirit of almost missionary fervour with which they are fighting their battle, the campaign is going to cost a pretty penny.