Liquor In The King Country

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 December 1948, Page 5

Liquor In The King Country

Opinions Of Members Of The House Given In Debate On Licensing

PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Last Night (PA).—During the debate on the second reading of the Licensing Amendment Bill, in the House of Representatives tonight, references were made to the question of liquor in the King Country.

Ihe Leader or the Opposition (Mr. Holland), referring to the position which existed in the King Country, said that as the result of discussions between 1884 and 1887 the King Country was declared to be a no-licence area by proclamation.

There had been a great deal of misunderstanding ovei 1 what was meant by the proclamation, but the Government declared that there shall be no liquor in the King Cotlntry for sale. The Government did not say that liquor should not come into fnat area but in 1944. although the King Country was still a no-licence area, it was known that 220,000 gallons of beer had come into that territory legally. That quantity was about six gallons per head of population. There had been no vote on whether the King Country should be dry or wet, and it had always been possible inside the law to take liquor into the area. Now, however, people would be given a vote to determine whether there should be a change. Two polls were to be taken. Maori and European, and a remarkable feature in the Bill, which he accepted with some reluctance, was that there should be two rolls. The Bill was heavily loaded in favour of the King Country remaining dry. There were 19,500 European voters, 3500 Maori voters, and 40 per cent of the Maori voters could beep the King Country dry. Mr. Holland said that 1400 Maori people could over-rule the rest of the population if the remainder of the population voted "wet.” The proportion of Maori to European population was one to seven, and the weight given the Maori vote would require 16 other votes to equal one Maori vote. "There is tremendous loading in favour of the King Country remaining

dry,” declared Mr. Holland. He thought the ballot paper was also loaded in favour of trust control. The Acting Prime Minister (Mr. Nash) said that the King Country was a better area because of the clubs operating there, and the Bill provided for facilities of that type. The question could be raised that if there was no-licence in the King Country there should be chartered clubs; yet it appeared that no-licence without chartered clubs was appreciably worse than no-licence with chartered clubs. With the co-operation of all members of the police, trade and temperance people the Bill would bring about better conditions for the sale of liquor. PACT WITH MAORIS. Mr. T. C. Webb (Onp., Rodney), discussed in detail the history of the nolicence issue in the King Country, and said that even if the pact with the Maoris once existed there was no moral or legal obligations against the change being introduced if the Maoris favoured it. The Maori elders should accept their responsibilities in a modern age and, instead of boycotting the separate Maori poll for which the Bill provided, they should vote themselves and encourage other Maoris to do so in order to make the poll an authentic expression of opinion. Mr. Webb agreed that, chartered clubs were preferable to sly-grogging if the polls should determine that the King Country was to remain a dry area. Mr. J. Mathison (Govt., Avon), said that when the Licensing Committee was considering evidence which was given before it at recent sittings, some of the statements made by Maori witnesses were extravagant and most of the statements made in reference to the King Country pact had been refuted. Mr. W. S. Goosman (Opp., Piako), said the position in the King Country had changed over the last 40 to 50 years with the development of timber ’and coal resources, and the.men employed in those industries were perfectly entitled to have a glass of beer when they wanted it. If they were not allowed ihat right, there would be difficulty in obtaining labour to work the resources of the area. He considered that if there was a pact made between the King Country and the Government it should not endure for all time. No one had a right to make a pack to bind the people for ever. NO EVIDENCE OF PACT. Mr. E. T. Tirikatene ’(Govt., Southern Maori) agreed that research had failed to bring to light anything in the nature of a constitutional pact between the King Country and the Government, but. he felt that at some time before—and in those days the word of the Maori was his bond something was said by a responsible member of the Government that was interpreted as being a pact.