MAORIS AND LIQUOR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25800, 22 March 1945, Page 6

MAORIS AND LIQUOR

KINO COUNTRY PACT

NO OFFICIAL RECORD (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Mar. 21. At the sitting of the Licensing Commission to-day the Under-secretary of Justice, Mr B. L. Dallard, presented a supplementary statement. “A romantic fiction” had been weaved around the existence of a solemn; pact or covenant between the Government of the day and the King Country. Maoris, he said, concerning the prohibition of liquor in that area. The authority or basis for the belief was somewhat obscure, and he had not been able to find anything in support of it in the records. Figures obtained by witness showed that last year 223,275 gallons of beer, 568 gallons of whisky, 67 gallons of brandy, 188 gallons of gin, 43 gallons of rum, 3564 gallons of wine, and 434 gallons of other alcoholic beverages had been sent into the King Country through legitimate channels. Though there was also much illegal consumption, the notified figures alone showed a per capita consumption in the King Country of 5.5 gallons, which was more than half the per capita rate for the whole Dominion.