NEW HAMPSHIRE ABANDONS PROHIBITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12272, 16 May 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

NEW HAMPSHIRE ABANDONS PROHIBITION.

Nrcw Hampshire, following quickly in the steps of Vermont, has abandoned its policy of prohibition, or semi-prohibition, of the

liquor traffic, to which it has clung for forty-eight years, and has adopted in its place a high-license and local-option law. This takes New Hampshire out of the prohibition column, leaving but three prohibition States—Maine, Kansas,.and North Dakota. The old prohibitory law, which was enacted in 1855, resembled the Maine law, except that the prohibition was applied only against the retail sale, and not against the manufacture, of intoxicating liquors. The new la,?, which was signed bv Governor Batchelder lately, will take effect"on May 1, and provides that it shall be lawful to'engage in the liquor traffic in all cities and and towns of the State that shall have accepted, ; by a majority vote, the provisions of the ' Act. The law is different from others of I its kind in that it calls for the appointment ; of a bi-partisan state board of license commissioners, which is uractically given abso- : lute authority to regulate the liquor traffic. ._ These commissioners may not only grant licenses of all classes, without number, provided that the applicants conform with certain requirements, but they have the power to revoke the mnholders' license, which is considered in the first class, "at any time without notice, at their own discretion." and can even grant licenses in towns where the majority votes against license. They are also " authorised and empowered to prescribe regulations for the conduct of the traffic under any license of the first class as they see fit," and can appoint as many special agents as they please " to investigate all matters relating 'to the collection of license fees or penalties and in relation to compliance with the law." Under the new law licenses are "ranted at fees ranging from 25 dollars to 1000 dollars a year, and hotelkeepers, in case of a nolicense vote of the community in which they do business, can sell liquors each day iii the week at the discretion of the license commissioners The law "is an iniquitous and dangerous measure," declares the Boston Journal; but the Springfield Republican believes that the " license and local-option policy can not greatly, if at all, increase the amount of liquor-drinking in the State; while it will certainly result in substituting a state of law over the liquor business in place of the state of anarchy which has hitherto prevailed." j