The Thames Star. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1597.

Thames Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 8618, 24 March 1897, Page 2

The Thames Star. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1597.

AUCKLAND LICENSING ELECTIONS,

Some titno ago it was announced from the South that the Prohibitionist party would not fight the licensing committee elections, and would not accept any responsibility for the continuance of the liquor traffic. It was understood that the decision was based | upon two points—the first being that the licensing committees have been legislatively shorn of most of their j udical and administrative power, while the second is bound up in the Prohibitionist motto : " Regulation of the traffic is impossible." It is pretty widely argued that in the present state of affairs the Magistrates and the police could do all the work which now falls to the lot of the Committees. Coming to the second point, it is clear that the Prohibitionists are going to make a determined effort—in spite of the result of the referendum—to nail their colors to the mast. For years they fought more or less successfully for representation on the licensing committees, seeking thereby to regulate the traffic according to their desires. But now they have once and for all thrown regulation overboard. The editor of the Review of Reviews, who can perhaps be regarded as an impartial spectator, made a very pertinent remark in his leading columns when the result of the referendum in this colony became known. " New Zealand Prohibitionists," he argued—we do not give the exact words, —" should make regulation and amelioration of the traffic their stepping stone, and should—at least for the present—proceed on such lines as are laid down in the Gothenburg system. 'It is poor mountaineering to attempt to reach the top of Mt. Cook by a single stride.' " To this the Prohibitionists will probably reply that they have tried regulation and are sick of it; that they are determined to proceed by the " single stride " or to let the alleged evil work itself out. As far as the interests of Prohibition are concerned—and bearing in mind the points which we have emphasized— this may be good policy and it may not. The point which the Prohibitionists seem to have striven to gain is to leave as little to committee regulation as possible, and to tie the whole power and responsibility of making and unmaking on to the people. That is the position which generally obtains —we are not speaking locally— throughout the chief centres of the colony. The election of Licensing Committees for the city of Auckland, which is being held to-day, centres round six caniidates, five of whom are to be elected. They are: Messrs J. J. Craig, Wm. Craig, J. T. Julian, T. T. Masefield, John Patterson, and C. S. Wright. Speaking of the election, and the reversal in the Prohibitionist tactics from active to passive, the Herald remarks: " The troublesome system upon which our electoral machinery ie now constructed is exemplified in the

licensing election poll to take place today. The licensing commissioners have now very little power. The prohibition party were determined to have the sole control in all matters of importance placed in the hands of 'the people ', and we saw what a moss was made by that arrangement last December, and what a dire misfortune it was for the country. All that remains now to be done by licensing committees could easily bo accomplished by the stipendiary magistrate and the police. There is not the slightest need for a committee being elected, and certainly none for a contest, which will cost a considerable sum. The Prohibitionists have determined not to have anything to do with the election, so we suppose that the gentlemen who are now in nomination are put up by the other side. There is no principle at stake in the matter, and as far as we can see, anyone of these gentlemen i» as suitable as any other. .... Ih the old days the Justices of the Peace composed the licensing Bench, and this was the survival of an ancient English practice. If good men had always been nominated to this position there would never have been any argument for a change. But abuses ci'ept in and the temperance party agitated for special committees, considering that if they could put their men in, the could make an end of the traffic. But this expectation was soon found to be out of the question. Some houses were deprived of their licenses, and the owners of those that remained were compelled greatly to improve them. Butthere was no material change in the business. Its centralisation indeed made it more difficult for the temperance party to deal with it. Then they determined to abandon the committees as hopeless and fall back upon the Parliamentary constituency. That resulted in making things worse. The election to-day is a survival. The reforming and improving work of the first committees is now at an end."