THE LICENSING BILL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLVII, Issue 12270, 2 September 1904, Page 5

THE LICENSING BILL.

THE NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE S

VIEW

Per Press Association

WELLINGTON, September 1. A.meeting of this Executive of the iNew Zealand Alliance and a. number of friends Tvas held this afternoon to consider the Xiicensing Act Amendment Bill. The f olloiwing official report of the proceedings was communi'icafed to the Press:—

It was determiined %o •oppose the elimination of the reduction issue. It was resolved to strenuously oppose clauses 9 and 10, which would submit to the popiu lar vote the question as to whether those should be penalised _ who possess liquor in districts that have determined by vote to prohibit tlie tmffio in liquor within then- borders. The proposal, the Conference dontiended, has never been made nor contemplaited by the Prohibition party in New Zealand, ■which, in this matter, has kept step ..with the Prohibition forces in the British. Empire and in the United S'tatles. It is advocated with an assumption of democratic principles, "by the'liquor traffic only, ■whose official organ has openly declared that it was made for the sole purpose of retarding the no-Bcens© niov>&ment. It was determined also to very strenuously oppose clauses 25 and 26, on the ground that the State control of the liquor traffic has not ibeen asked for Hby any considlsx'abl'e section of the public, and if carried would inevi'tiably prove a cor. rup'tmg factor in the political lifeof the colony and 'a source of demoralisation to the people, wHb would of necessity participate in the profits arsmg from a triamo that depends for-its existence on tlhe vices of the people. The-Convention held that no such proposal should in any case be submitted to the people without a clear and dJeStialed: statement of the measure of State control suggested and the manner in which it should be exercised. It 'alslo expressed' its conviction that it would be simpler and more effective to submit a national option proposal to the decision of the majority of the electors of the colony. While recogmsl--'ing that the clauses (14 to 22 of the Bill) 'dealing wiltlh disputed polls, represent in several respects an improvement on the analogous provisions in the Local Elections Bill,/ the Conference strongly protested against jMs inclusion of such clauses in the 'Licensing Bill, on the ground that they lelafce to electoral machinery only, and that the people's rights to a. -rail* poll should not be prejudiced, by being made contingent upon th« passing of a measure abounding in concessions to the traffic, and in restrictions on the popular power to control ilb. It was also resolved %6 enter a■strong protest against the 'introduction of liquor, into the Iving Country or Cook Islands.