PUBLIC CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3675, 27 February 1899, Page 6

PUBLIC CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

111. —IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING COMMUNITIES. (By Rev. James Milne, M.A., Auckland.) In England, Public Control was first advocated by Mr Chamberlain upwards of twenty years ago. So ably did he plead its cause then that the municipality of Birmingham was persuaded to give it a trial, but a Bill being required from the Legislature for the transference of private licenses to the municipality, this measure was defeated in the House of Commons by the combined interests of publicans and prohibitionists. Thus what would have proved an interesting experiment on a large scale w r as defeated by a combination of two extremes, whose very union is suggestive of the " better way" lying somewhere between them. Sir Chamberlain s labours were not, however, in vain, for a committee of the House of Lords appointed to look into the working. of the principle of Public Control in Sweden, reported, as early as 1879, “ that legislative facilities should be afforded for the local adoption of the Gothenburg and of Mr Chamberlain's schemes, or of some modification of them." The difference between the schemes were that, whereas in Sweden the spirit traffic is vested in a company, Mr Chamberlain would have vested the whole liquor traffic in the municipality; and possibly a modification of Mr Chamberlain's plan is now most popular with reformers, who advocate vesting the traffic in a public board consisting of so many members of the municipality with a greater number elected by the community. After Mr Chamberlain's special effort, little seems to have been done in Englishspeaking communities in advocating the principle for several years. The Temperance party, mostly prohibitionists, .were sternly opposed to it; so also were the trade, whose interests were strong. A moderate reform is not as a rule carried by enthusiasm, although it may be ajl the more permanent for lack of it, but rather by compromise, which just means waiting. Accordingly, some dozen years after the House of Lords issued its report, the Department of Labour in the United States Legislature sent Dr Gould to Norway and Sweden as its Commissioner to report on the working of the Scandinavian system. On the publication of his report in 1863, in which he commended Public Control as the best and most practicable : principle for regulating the drink traffic, public interest was again aroused, in America, and in' the State of Massachusetts so strong was the-feeling for a trial of the principle that a Commission was appointed by the Governor to draft a’Bill for introduction (o the Legislature. The measure, ivhich proposed the Norwegian system modified tq meet local' conditions, was duly discussed and lost by one vote—the opposition here again consisting or those who represented trade interests and prohibitionists. However, be it said that many of the latter supported the measure, among them being the chairman df the Prohibition Committee, who declared that it was wiser to encourage than to antagonise the movement. Mrs Mary *l. Livermore, the well-known temperance advocate, wrote :—" First, last and always I am a prohibitionist, and I favour - the Norwegian Bill,' because if righteously administered its tendency will be towards prohibition, and if our good temperance people would carefully study the Bill I think- their objections would disappear. I hope the Bill will pass.” Public interest in this method of reform revived in England, some' seven or eight years. ago and to-day, in both England and Scotland, there is a growing feeling in its favour. In the former country the movement is ably championed and led'by the Bishop of Chester, by l whose organising, mainly, the famous Grosvenor House meeting was held four years ago, at which the Duke of Westminster presided, and Mr Chamberlain very ably advocated the principle of Public. Control; in moving the motion whereby the Publichouse Reform Association was constituted. Probably one of the strongest branches of this association is in Aberdeen. It has on its roll of membership most of the representative clergy; many of the professors of the university, and leading citizens, its president being Dr Louis Wilson, Professor of Law in Marischall College, and for many years a sheriff of the county. It was in this northern city, three years ago, that a strong attempt was , made to municipalise ;,the drink traffic, only the time was premature, and the ojiposition of local optionists and, prohibitionists proved too strong. However, friends of. the movement believe that better; times are in store • for it in the north and in Scotland, generally, when her sons shall have had time to reflect; and the time is not far distant when those who now regard. the idea of temperance reform with, a derision inspired through the intemperate action of many advocating temperance, will awake to their responsibility, and prohibitionists will be brought to see that it is far wiser to support a movement : whereby they, can at least; place a hand on the drink traffic; than join the ■liquor interest in defeating every attempt thereunto, and then retiring swear at large against the very parties ' they have assisted.: _There is a want of consistency in such action which must soon render itself apparent, and it will bo strange if t the men north of the Tweed are not the first to recognise a good thing in the way of a much-needed reform by a practical application of; its principles to the drink traffic in Scotland. Meantime, towards this end in that country, a Triple Option League , has been formed, which aims at placing in the hands of Parliamentary constituents the three-fold query—Are you in favour of local option; or prohibition, or' public control? In the General Assemblies of the three Presbyterian ; Churches the 1 Gothenburg principle has likewise been, discussed, and in-one of these, viz., in, the Assembly of the Established Church of Scotland, it has been almost unanimously approved of. The movement sustained a: severe blow last year in the death , of Professor Calderwood, of Edinburgh, an able an- enthusiastic' advocate of its .principles. ‘ As to experiments, a very interesting and entirely successful-one has been made at the village of Elan, in connection with the Birmingham Corporation Waterworks in Wales. In,September, 1894, a canteen for the supply of beer, porter and aerated waters, for the men employed on the works and their families, was opened b.T the corporation. Mr Lees, secretary of the Birmingham Water Department, in a letter dated July. 26th, 1895; setting forth the success of theexperiment, thus conUludes: “In dividnally, I am a total abstainer, but I am perfectly certain we are serving the interests of temperance far better in providing wholesome liquor, under proper regulations, than we should be did we attempt to prohibit the traffic altogether, leaving it to bo conducted in the usual way by persons interested in encouraging the sale, or driving the men to, illicit practices to obtain supplies." The: canteen system.under which drink is. sold in the army, is practically wrought on the principle underlying public control. In Australasia , the principle is coming under favourable notice by leaps and bounds. The South Australian Government has made an experiment by opening a publichouse at the Renwark Settlement, and it is pronounced an unqualified success. At a late meeting in Sydney, the General Assembly, of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales adopted the Gothenburg principle as part of the temperance policy of the church. The Right Hon G. H. Reid, Premier of that colony, in his reply to a deputation from the; Assembly of-the previous year, commendingthe consideration of the. principle to the Government, said :—" The Gothenburg proposal was one which with modificationmight be one of the most feasible he had heard of. In the first place it got at the root of the abuse of the trade. ... . . Ho must say, without committing himself to the proposal, it seemed to .be the best yet submitted.'' The Anglican Church in Now Zealand has lately given its attention; to the consideration of this reform, and at its last conference in Christchurch pronounced strongly in favour of the principle of public control; and doubtless soon we shall have an experiment to prove the practical utility of a principle bearing upon its very face elements which must in its application prove its success as a temperance reform.