SIR ROBERT STOUT’S VIEWS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 84, 9 April 1919, Page 5

SIR ROBERT STOUT’S VIEWS

ABOLITION' OF LIQ UUR,bAVOOBED. " OVER THIRD OF CRIME DIRECTLY DUE TO LIQUOR. The Secretary of the New Zealand' Alliance called on /Sir Robert Stout to ask it he would make any prondnnee- , ment on the use made by ‘Moderates” of some " past speeches of his. : ( ISlr Robert said: ‘‘in my opinion the | quotation that has been published from Imy article to. the ‘Timaru Herald' of ’ (1914), might mislead people,; as, it 'is taken 'from its setting.' I wap not dealing with the right of th© St-ath tain its existence and td v .ifiianiam; ’the health of the people. 1 he’liev&'it is

the dqty of the State to eveh insist qu conscription if it is for the defence of the nation, and 1 also believe that the State cannot allow poisons td be sold” at the will of any person, it 1 must ,;secui‘e 'the health of the people,* and tfiis licensing question i 6 a question! of liekltiL and. of morality, and if we . find ajiiyttiing interfering with the health ;of th'e people, or with them, either or morally, it is_ the duty of i the State to interfere 'and *to preserve ) the ifation 'TrDm'' destruction. Fersdilai j liberty muit givd way 'to the State. I “I understand it hak Been stated'that 1 am opposed to compensation. ! Cur Parliament .’by its Licensing ' Act, ,1910 ; gave compensation, for if National Prohibition were carried licenses were to, ' continue, for four and a half years;' That would mean a waste of perhaps eighteen millions of. money. The proposed' Compensation was put in to prevent the Trade being ended suddenly, whereas' the four and a half millions is ' proposed with a view to ending the 'trade immediately, and. it is for the people to pay whether they will pay four and a half millions to end the sale immediately,, or pay eighteen millions spread over yeark, and that .is the question people have'to' determine. ‘Tt is not for m 6 to dictate to any electors. Any man of ordinary commonsense could only give one answer. The reason I have taken a keen interest in the liquor question has been what 1 have seen in my stay in New Zealand now over fifty-five ypars. .1 know what has happened to many of the boys who were under me at school. I wag a teacher in the year s 1864 to 1867. Many of my brightest boys have fallen in the race of'life through intoxicants. Many men who would have been a glory to New Zealand have passed away from the same cause. 1 know from my experience as a lawyer and a judge that at least one-third of the criminal*. directly, and many more, indirectly, found themselves in gaols from indulgence "in intoxicating liquor.”