THE LICENSING LAW.

Southland Times, Issue 14578, 19 November 1910, Page 5

THE LICENSING LAW.

ITS XiOCAZi BPPEOTS. j With the object of obtaining some representative opinions in regard to the new Licensing Act and its bearing on local conditions, a Southland Times reporter yesterday made some enquiries with the following result. Mr J, J. Wesney’s Views. Mr J. J. Wesney, when interviewed, , said that the Government was to be congratulated on the passing of the Bill, which contained a great deal of contentious matter. The Temperance Party (from whose point of view he was speaking) had hoped to get the 55 per cent, majority, but they recognised that most of the Parliamentary representatives had pledged themselves to tire threeflfths majority, and felt, for that reason, that it was almost hopeless to expect to get tire 55 per cent, majority through. However, the Prohibition Party had coma out of the matter very well. All they had lost was the reduction vote- —the right to vote induction. The one blot on, the Bill, so far as Invercargill was concerned, was Ore failure of the Government to provide for tire closing of tire breweries on the borders of the district. However, their trade would be very largely curtailed by the restrictive measures inserted in the Bill. What the Party had gained was:Dominiou prohibition, the right to, vote on separate ballot papers; the abolition of bottle licenses; the abolition of barmaids: the abolition of the half poll; the abolition of lockers; the making of it. illegal to erect breweries or brewery depots within five miles of a no-license district; and certain restrictive measureswith regard chiefly (he understood) to the consignment of liquor into No-license districts. , „ The general effect in Invercargill would be to materially alter the drinking customs of the people, because the provision dealing with the lockers was very comprehensive and would have the effect of closing the present unlicensed clubs and the places where lockers have been in full swing, and of preventing the consumption of liquor in billiard saloons and places of a similar kind. It would also tend to break up any keg parties which had been held in buildings. It was doubtful whether the clause applied to reserves; if so, it would mean, that the Corporation would he held responsible for the. drinking there. It would also, he thought, prevent the consumption of liquor in the breweries m Invercargill. , , On the whole the Bill would be a great advantage to the Party in Invercargill, he thought, as it would tend to give Nollceuse a fair show, whiph hitherto it had not had. About the only thing which was left now for the Temperance Party to fight for was the bare majority on both the local and Dominion questions. The Parly- would now bend its energies in the direction of getting each candidate for Parliament to pledge him- ■ self to the bare majority, and it hoped, under next Parliament, to have the majority reduced to the hare majority. In that event, Dominion prohibition would, Mr Wesney believed, naturally result. Mr J. S. Baxter's Opinion.

Mr J. S. Baxter, when spoken to con- , cerning the Bill, said that so far as the matter appealed to himself and (he j thought) the Temperance Party, the : amendments to the. BUI would prove _ satisfactory. Some of them were, of course, a little belated. For instance, ever since the beginning of the struggle, the Temperance party had fought tor the abolition of the barmaid, and the prohibition which applied to persons under the age of 21 years was also quite in keeping with their programme. A good deal of humbug had been talked, said Mr Baxter, about the abolition pf the barmaid; about doing away wit a means of employment for women, and so on. A capable young woman could, ne : thought, always find plenty of suitable and more seemly employment. As the Temperance movement made progress, and the community became more accustomed to the idea of tae restrictions that were being . to , r ’ their opposition died away, and they ultimately acceded to the contention that certain restrictions of the liquor traffic would be a very good thing. Mr Baxter said that Dr Findlay’s amendments which proposed to stop the locker system would meet with the hearty agreement of'the Temperance party. They were Tinf satisfied, howovor, with, the reten—to Of the three-fifths majority. They were willing to work under a fair handicap, seeing that big changes had .been made, but they thought that the majority required should at least have been reduced Three-fifths was too big a handicap altogether, and the workers would be soured and disheartened by the repeated experience of missing by a narrow margin the result they had striven, so hard to attain. The hurdie was too < big and was unreasonable and lie expected that the party would fight, if not ' for the bare majority, at least, for a.reduction of the majority required to. carry the poll. The Temperance party, said Mr Baxter in conclusion, would probably have let Temperance legislation, rest-for a good few years if the suggested compromises had all bedn, a& ln e ans°wer to a question as to how far the measure of support accorded to the proposal for national prohibition wasllkely to coincide with the support accorded to local No-license, Mr Baxter said that he quite expected that tha great majority of the Temperance party would loyally support both measures I*/ was very difficult to estimate such a poMtionfand one could not really tell until the numbers went up. No doubt a few of the moderate members of the nartv who supported local No-hcetisa* would not support national prohibitionIt was to counteract such possible losses as this that, from a party point of view, he would like to see the hurdle Of the three-fifths majority reduced. S

An Objector. 1 An Invercargill resident Qualified trv sneak from an hotel proprietors and. restaurant-keeper’s point of view, when asked for his opinion on the Licensing' Act, said he considered that the many farmers, who visited Invercargill, would., be the principal victims of the. new regulations. They would be practically deprived of any meeting-place or of, shelter and would have to do their business either in the streets or saleyards. Fanners took avdantage, he said, of public rooms to negotiate deals, but an owner of an hotel or restaurant would now hardly be safe in allowing them the use of a pen and ink for fear that they might conclude a bargain with a nip. which was not an unusual happening. He considered that the Act would have the effect of stopping many country people coming into Invercargill, the probability being that either Otautau or Win ton would bo favoured instead as a market centre. Farmers as a class were naturally very jealous of any infringement on what they considered their rights and privileges as British subjects. Others, too, were to be denied the right of having a soft drink in a temperance bar, and it really seemed outrageous that a man should be prohibited from availing himself of the contents of ' a flask, if he had inclinations that way. Everything, he thought, pointed to people in a very short time rising up ia their wrath and sweeping away the framers of sucli stringent laws as wer® now being introduced in New Zealand. In the meantime licensed districts would benefit and No-license districts would bo great sufferers.