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New Zealand Herald, Issue XXI, 15 May 1884, Page 4

The memorial presented yesterday to His Excellency the Governor on behalf of the natives in the Bang Country, praying that he should declare by proclamation in the Gazette that no license for the sale of spirituous liquors be granted within the boundaries of-their district, is a very important and farreaching document. The Licensing Act undoubtedly invests the Governor with power to issue such a proclamation, on application being made by the owners of any block or area of native land. But, as was remarked by Mr. Davis (one of the deputation who presented the memorial), the subject is a grave as well as a great one, and will require very careful consideration as to the manner of carrying it out. It was, therefore, wise in His Excellency to defer giving any reply to the deputation at this stage, especially as all the copies of the memorial which had been distributed among the natives had not yet come to hand. No doubt he will desire to consult with his responsible advisers before "iving his decision, seeing the matter has a wide bearing, and involves other interests than those of the Maori population. This may be deemed the more necessary owing to the pecnliar wording of the Act. On a general view of the question it is impossible no to sympathise with the natives in their | desire to save their race from the ruinous consequences of that debauchery of which they become the inevitable victims so soon as they gave way to habits of intemperance. To a certain extent it was this desire that induced their leading chiefs to maintain so long their seclusion from all the European population ; and, now the progress of the colony has entailed on tham tho necessity of terminating their isolation, it is only fair that, their claim for protection from what they deem an evil, should as far as possible be respected. And we make no doubt that this will be done both by the Governor and the Miniatry of the day. The difficulty in this matter is, whether the absolute prohibition of any license within the King Country may not be attended with worse consequences than those which might flow from a simple enforcement of the ordinary restrictions of the Act. When the available portions of that coHntry are opened up for settlement, it will Be impossible to prevent spirits from finding their way into it, and the clandestine sale of them to natives as well' as, Europeans may be reckoned on as a certainty. And bad aB the results of

an open traffic in these might be, tW effects of an illicit one- would obviously be more demoralising. This, of course " is-no reason why the moat stringent precautions should not be taken against placing an .undisguised temptation under the eyes of the native population of that district, but it reveals the necessity f of these precautions being resolved on and applied only after much solicitude and the exercise of a sound and well-balanced judgment.