LICENSING LEGISLATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19323, 10 May 1926, Page 8

LICENSING LEGISLATION.

The periodical revision of licensing legislation is to be included in the work of the next session of Parliament. A bill, presumably based upon a consolidation of the existing law, will be introduced by the Government, but according to traditional practice it will not be a party measure. The conflict will be between the two principal parties to the liquor controversy, and with a view to modifying its violence Mr. Coates has invited them to a conference to discover the points on which agreement can be reached. This consultation prior to the framing of a licensing bill has been recognised by previous Governments, though possibly not with as much official formality as the Prime Minister now proposes. It is conceivable, though improbable, that the licensed trade and the prohibition party might accept a compromise upon all the points of contention raised by the deputation from the New Zealand Alliance which interviewed the Prime Minister on Friday. Their agreement should not, however, commit the Government or Parliament. They arc the protagonists, but they are not fully representative of public opinion. The Government cannot be guided merely by parties which stand respectively for the maintenance and the abolition of the liquor traffic, the one opposing the restrictions which the other seeks to impose. After it lias heard their representations, independent or joint, the Government still has a responsibility to consider the wishes and the interests of the community as a whole, to decide whether partisan proposals may be harmful, to consider what other measures are necessary for the welfare of a temperate community. ' There is assurance in the Prime Minister's statement that this responsibility will not be forgotten. He declared that if the liquor business is not being conducted properly, it should be improved. That, in a sentence, defines the attitude that «hould be maintained by the Government and adopted by Parliament. Not only arc they detached from the central controversial issue, except to the extent of providing for the expression of public opinion, but they are bound to see that legislation is not dominated by the idea that the traffic may ultimately lie abolished. For Parliament, the chief consideration is that the liquor traffic exists and upon it falls the responsibility of framing legislation that will ensure the observance of a high standard in its conduct.