SALE OF LIQUOR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 98, 27 April 1945, Page 5

SALE OF LIQUOR

CASE FOR THE TRADE CHARGES MADE WILL BE KIFUUD (P.A.) Wellington, April 2G. The case for the National Council for lhe Licensed Trade oi New Zealand was opened before the Royal Commission on Licensing to-day by Mr. P. B. Cooke, K.C. in spile of the fact that the chairman (Mr. Justice Smith) had pointed out that the Commission had been set up to consider the public interest and not to adjudicate between conflicting interests, he said the Governmnt department which had undertaken the prepartaion of material lor 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 A lot of charges had been made and none had been withdrawn, said Mr.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 facts that were beyond /iispute, or that he intended to prove, and they did not know yet. “Wo want the Commission to know,” he aiitted, -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 lairly 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.” Continuing, Mr. Cooke said the barest justice demanded that distinction should be drawn between matters allegedly lhe fault of the trade and matters due to defects, either in the law or in methods of its enforcement. The Commission had been told that reforms, probably of a drastic nature, were vitally necessary in the public interest. That was a very sweeping statement, but its value could be judged from the fact that the Justice Department had not yet descended to particulars. (1) The 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 continuance of private enterprise. Discussing the second statement, Mr. Cooke said that there had been a progressive decrease in drunkenness. Consumption per head of alcohol in beer was no more to-day than in 1919, and the csonsumption of spirits had decreased over the years. STATE OWNERSHIP. 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 a 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. The Scottish report had recommended that the State ptanagement experiment at Gretna and Cromarty should be discontinued. That unanimous condemnation ot State or public ownership was 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-aud-out failure. I say that the main reason is that the public is against it. They don’t like it. They’ve seen it and they think it is just a bad system. “We say that a tied-house and man-aged-house system both operate 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 seated that 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. Mr. Cooke had not finished his address at the adjournment.