“NO REAL DRINK PROBLEM”

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23186, 27 April 1945, Page 4

“NO REAL DRINK PROBLEM”

Contention Of Trade Views Put Before Licensing Commission (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 26. The case for the National Council for the Licensed Trade of New Zealand was opened before the Royal Commission on Licensing to-day by Mr P. B. Cooke, K.C. In spite of the fact that the chairman had pointed out that the Commission had been set up to consider the public interest and not to judge between conflicting interests, he said, the Government department which had undertaken the preparation of material for the Commission in evidence led by counsel appointed to assist the Commission had seen fit to make a number of serious charges against the Trade. A lot of charges had been made and none had been withdrawn, said Mr Cooke. Mr Willis had not stated what were the facts that were beyond dispute, or that he intended to prove and they did not yet know.

“We want the Commission to know,” he added, “that such relevant charges as have been made in cases where there is anything that may be regarded as substantial evidence to back them up will be met fairly and squarely by the Trade. The Trade will throughout endeavour to make a really constructive contribution to the question which the Commission has to inquire into in the public interest.” What Justice Demands Continuing, Mr Cooke said the barest justice demanded that a distinction should be drawn between matters allegedly the fault of the Trade and matters due to defects either in law or in the methods of enforcement. The Commission had been told that reforms, probably of a drastic nature, were vitally necessary in the public interest. That was a sweeping statement, but its value could be judged from the fact that the Justice Department had not yet descended to particulars. He submitted that (1) people had repeatedly expressed their view at the polls in a manner that showed beyond question that continuance was an established fact; (2) there was no real drink problem in New Zealand to-day; (3) there was an overwhelming case for the continuance of private enterprise. Discussing the second statement, Mr Cooke said that there had been .a progressive decrease in drunkenness. The consumption per head of alcohol in beer was no more to-day than in 1919, and the consumption of spirits had decreased over the years. “Trust Control a Failure”

Referring to State and public ownership and control, Mr Cooke asked the Commission to approach the subject on the principle that an ounce of practice was worth a ton of theory. He suggested that it should look at the two most familiar practical experiments, Carlisle and Invercargill. While the English Commission on Licensing had expressed the view that there was a prima facie case for public ownership, it had done no more than recommend that the Carlisle system should be submitted to a further test. A Scottish report had recommended that the State management experiment at Gretna and Cromarty should be discontinued and that unanimous condemnation of State or public ownership w’as issued after the Carlisle experiment had been going 15 or 16 years. “I am going to submit,” continued Mr Cooke, “that the position in Invercargill is that it is an out and out failure. I sav that the main reason is that the public is against it. They do not like it. They have seen it and they think it is just a bad system. “We say that the tied house and the managed house system both onerate for the benefit of the public and should be retained. Mr Cooke added that if the business of the Trade was a monopoly because it was licensed, so was every other business licensed under the Industrial Efficiency Act. He also stated it was a recognised practice for tied hotelkeepers to be allowed to carry makes of bottled beer other than those in the tie. and that liquor and goods were supplied to tied houses at no greater prices than to untied houses.