MAORIS AND LIQUOR.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 169, 28 July 1908, Page 2

MAORIS AND LIQUOR.

POSITION IN THE KING COUNTRY.

SUCCESSFUL PROHIBITION.

WELLINGTON, July 21 | "It would be interesting to , learn from someone with a knowledge of the {acts how this autocratic Prohibition has succeeded in the King Country," said the 'Lyttelton 'limes' last week in referring to some prosecutions for _ly grog^selling in the districts that have been made Prohibition areas by Order-in-Council. This evening Mr W. | T. Jennings, member for Egmont, who has a personal knowledge of the conditions pre- ; vailing in the Rohae-potae, gave your repre- j sentative his views on the question raised, j "With an intimate knowledge of the : King Country, extending over a period of ten 'years," remarked Mr Jennings, "I have no hesitation in saying that so far as sly grog-selling is concerned, the practice has been almost- wiped out,- a fact due to the strict supervision exercised by the police. This sly grog-selling was a curse, particularly to the men who were employed on the co-operative works in connection with the Main Trunk line and to the road workers, and in a lesser degree to the Maoris. The amendment of the licensing law, which gave the bona fide residents of the King Country the opportunity of purchasing alcoholic liquors for their own private consumption, has, to a large extent, discouraged the sly grog system. Prior to that amendment no resident in the King Country could bring into the district, liquor for his own use, and the result of this harsh restriction was to throw trade into th« hands of the seller «of sly grog. "In some parts of the King Country, particularly tit Taumarunui kainga, restrictions are still in vogue. In a township such as Taumarunui liquors cannot be sup- j plied at functions such as dinners and banquets, although on the railway side ,of the township, which is Government land, this embargo doe6 not exist. There id a great amount of liquor brought in to various parts of the King Country for private consumption, but before the people can secure the liquor they must go a considerable, distance to places where licenses are in force. Residents at Taumarunui or Raurimu, for instance, must travel* a- distance of about eighty milef*, a journey not likely to be. undertaken tightly. The result is that ■many people do hot bother to go to the trouble and expense of getting liquor, so that, the regulations act in the direction of j reducing the consumption. Unquestion-'j ably a great quantity of liquor is obtained j by people who are willing to go to the trouble of getting it, and, in my opinion, Prohibition in the sense that is generally understood has not been accomplished. < "In regard to the Maoris, I say, as a result of experience of the prohibited districts in distinction from the areas) where Maoris reside in " the neighborhood of licensed houses, that the Maori of the King Country is certainly a temperate person. I have rarely seen a Maori under the influence of liquor in the prohibited districts. A disadvantage that arises, in my opinion, is that numbers of people who work in that great district get their cheques and 1 go to Auckland,' Wellington, or other places where there are' licensed houses to .spend their money. " Summing up the position, I may say-' that there, are many people in the King (JJountTy who hold that licensed houses would oe an advantage. Other people hold that' the district would be a suitable one in which to, try State control, and there are many men whose opinions are worthy of consideration who feel that an injustice is done them in that they have not the same" right of Local Option as other people of the ■Dominion. The system that prevails, however; has certainly given an opportunity to those who are careM and thrifty to accumulate money, and many of these people have, to my own knowledge, acquired sections of land, and are now in comfortable circuni-* stances. This statement applies particularly to some men who were* employed on the co-operative railway works*"