King Country Liquor

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 139, 2 September 1927, Page 1

King Country Liquor

“GRAVE ANOMALIES IN LAW”

Bishop Cherrington’s Strong Comment

THE Bishop of Waikato, following up the remarks of Mr. Justice Herdman upon the operation of the liquor laws in the King Country, made an outspoken declaration against the enforcement of prohibition in that part of the country.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, To-day. Some important observations on the position of the Maoris in the King Country were made by Bishop Clierrington this week when he commented on the application

“Anybody who knows,” he said, “I am sure will be thoroughly dissatisfied with the state of things there at present.” “You have only to read the stringent remarks of the Judge in a certain case reported this week with regard to the anomalies of the law, intimating that there is a very grave question as to whether the law in that respect is wise. NOT A MAORI COUNTRY “When that treaty was made the conditions there were very different. If you are going to segregate a race in a certain part of the country and keep other races out, then there is a certain amount of justice in such a treat}'; hut now it is quite impossible to say that the King Country is Maori country. I suppose the number of New Zealanders there is vastly greater than the number of Maoris. “Personally 1 think it is a tremendous anomaly that there should be a law preventing the sale of liquor in that area. It simply gives rise to all sorts of illegal actions so far as the law is concerned, but actions that cannot be, in any sense, called wrong. “You have no right to deprive citizens in that part having what in other parts of the country they are entitled to have. WRONG MORAL VIEWPOINT

o£ the liquor laws in that area. Although the bishop does not profess an intimate acquaintance with the subject he gives the opinion he has formed after taking a common sense view of the question, and his judgment con-

firms the words of Mr. Justice Herdman at Hamilton this week, when, referring to a case, he said “there is nothing more demoralising to a country than a law which is regarded with contempt and leads to underhand dealing, hypocrisy and deceit.” Bishop Cherrington, who interests himself closely in the welfare of the Maoris, expressed the opinion that it was wrong to enforce the prohibition of alcohol in the King Country now that a large proportion of the population was white, and he considered the restriction led to much bad behaviour and evasion of the law. He understood that, by virtue of the treaty between the authorities and a section of our Maori friends in the King Country, an agreement was made that no al- . coholic liquor should be taken into that district.

“It creates a wrong moral point of view, and it creates all sorts of ways of getting behind the law. This is leading to a great deal of bad behaviour that would not be the case if there were, as in other parts, licensed houses where liquor is sold under proper conditions.” The bishop added that freedom was one of the principles on which the British Empire was based, and he believed that the principle should be upheld. It was for that reason he had spoken in this way. He believed they had a Very grave responsibility. “It is grossly unfair,” he stated in referring to penalising for the commission of a breach of legality under the conditions imposed.