TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, 9th JUNE, 1939. THE “DRY” KING COUNTRY.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4194, 9 June 1939, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. FRIDAY, 9th JUNE, 1939. THE “DRY” KING COUNTRY.

EVIDENTLY the patience of the Waitomo Licensing Committee is exhausted. At its annual meeting last week it passed in the usual administrative process to survey the scene, .and the worthy magistrate who presided uttered a warning which all who are not blinded by prejudice must heed? The committee, be it remembered, is expressly required to watch ’ bVer the operation of the licensing , laws and the liquor traffic. When, therefore, it pauses to comment, its words may be seriously heeded. And this is what it says in a resolution to the Government and the people of this Dominion:— “That this Licensing Committee is seriously concerned with the state of affairs concerning the licensing laws in the King Country and that sly grogging is demoralising a section of the young people in this district, particularly among the Maoris. It feels that the time has arrived for a complete overhaul of the laws relating to the sale of liquor in the King Country, and that they should be brought into line with the laws of licensed districts.” Anyone who has troubled to watch the effects of an obsolete legislative restraint must, it is certain, endorse the views which the Committee has expressed. The position was bad enough twenty years ago; but the advent of a more mobile form of ■transport has served to intensify th« evil and render impossible the tasks of supervision. The illicit traffic is everywhere throughout an area which is supposedly “dry” but actually is “wet” indeed. The law, as is well-known, does not prohibit; it goes no further than a limited permission. Clearly, as events prove, it could not prohibit even if the attempt were made to do so. But the effect of a limited permission is only to drive underground an illicit traffic, and to attach to a system that is full of defect many worse attendant evils. It results in a completely demoralising influence. Most interesting in the attitude of the Licensing Committee was the observation of a member who had adhered to the ideals of temperance reform for 30 years or more; even he had to admit that “some form of control over the liquor traffic in the King Country would be welcomed.” That, in fact, could not well be denied by anyone who was not a bigot blinded by prejudice. The legislative stipulations are out-of-date, hypocritical and absurd. It is nothing more than humbug to suggest that the King Country is “dry” because a few pious stipulations have been written into the statutes which have the authority of Parliament. Actuallj’ it happens that there is more evil in the King Country liquor traffic and more demoralising influences on the community there than would be found in any “wet” district. Be it asked how long Parliament is going to perpetuate this farce. It is sheer nonsense to excuse inaction on the score of some treaty. obligation which, in all other respects, has by settlement and ruling conditions been overridden. Maybe it could be said that an area so wide as the King Country offers scope for constructive leadership on the Government’s part, and that there could be evolved a system that would honour the intent of- the treats’ and at the same time rid the locality of the menace of an illicit traffic. For a Government which upholds the principle of State ownership and control of a public utility the King Country may provide not merely the means to end a farcical “dry” law but more importantly be made to stand out as an example for the rest of New Zealand. But above all some remedy should be found without delay for the existing evils —they are altogether too harmful, too glaring, and should not be tolerated in any country that professes a regard for the welfare of its citizens and the sincerity of its Government.