LOCAL OPTION BILL.

West Coast Times, Issue 2617, 20 August 1877, Page 2

LOCAL OPTION BILL.

Mr Fox, in moving the second reading of the Local Option Bill, expressed his deep obligation to Mr Stout for having allowed him to occupy the post of honor this session, after having successfully carried last session, his Local Option Bill, to the second reading. He said the cause he was advocating was the cause of the poor man — the preventing of him from destroying happy homes. In consequence of his having been able to bring forward his Bill so early this session, he was unable to lay before them a number of petitions in favor of the Bill, but from advices received he wos able to say there were 15,000 signatures to the petitions in favor of the Bill on their way to tho House. Thehoii. gentleman said the Bill was not new, aud after detailing his past efforts in the same direction Slid the principle of it had been five times ratified bj- the House. This, to a great extent rendered it unnecessary to debate the question. Wa? it not recorded in Hansard, all or nearly all, he could say upon the question ? Hon. members had been mistaken in considering the question as much larger than it really was ; indeed the principle of the Bill was very simple ; but if carried out, it would be found to be a great social reform. In England and other countries the trade of dealing in alcoholic liquors was regarded as dangerous to the State, and it waa surrounded with as many barriers as possible to lessen the evils of it. There was constant agitation and legislation going on against it, and yet the gigantic evils arising from it remained- There were 400 Acts of Parliament made in Great Britain to deal with the evils arising from the liquor traffic, and more laws were still being passed every session, no fewer than 12 being likely to be passed this year, at home. This showed that legislation did no good now. What he proposed was to go upon an entirely different plan. Their plan was — prevention is better than cure. Do as Plimsoll did in preventing poor sailors being drowned. Get the authorities to prevent rotten ships goiug to sea. Do as a sensible man would do when he had a savage dog: Chain him up, aud not go about with a piece of diachylon plaster, patching up the wounds made by the dog.

They proposed, instead of putting the policeman's eye to work, to place the people b eye to watch the evils. At present the liquor traffic in the Colony was a gigantic monopoly. No one dare sell except those fortunate enough to be able to obtain a license ; then those who had power to grant these licenses had in most cases not the slightest sympathy with the districts in which they licensed tke houses. The Justices had the power to thrust upon the people liquor selling places without their consent. All the Justices had to do was to decide whether the applicant was a fit person to be granted a license, and whether the district wanted a house. Well, that latter power he proposed to deprive them of, and leave it with the men and women of a district to say whether they wanted a licensed house amongst them. There was nothing in that to shake the fabric of society, or tear their constitution to tatters. This principle had bpen affirmed by the House before, but when his Bill was in Committee, hon. members wfao were new to the question then, as he was himself, so mangled his poor Bill as to destroy all the usefulness it was originally hoped it would accomplish. The hon. member here read a memo he sent to Dr Pollen after that Bill was passed, making certaiu recommendations with regard to defining districts, so as to bring in the principle of two thirds of the people controlling the issue of licenses, bat they had not seen that his recommendations were carried out as they might have been. The instructions issued to the magistrates with regard to defining districts were copied out "in sorae iustances by making districts so large that it was impossible to obtain the signatures. One district in Auckland (Wairoaj was 100 miles oneway by 50 miles another. Well, notwithstanding tke obvious difficulties that interposed, a Temperance Society, at considerable expense, managed to canvas that immense district, but they did not succeed , in getting more than half the signatures of the people, and yet there were varieus i portions of that large district in which the peop'e were unanimously in favor of shutting up the public-houses. This was only a typical instauce : there were many others. I Well, the Bill did not propose to alter I these districts, but it proposed to give Chairmen of Licensing Boards power to declare, ])ro hac vice, a sub-district to meet the emergency. There was no instance, he believed, in which a principle was laid down by legislation, and no machinery provided to carry out this. It was the second point on which his Act failed, because the people themselves had to conduct the canvas. What he now proposed was the machinery of the State should be used to place a ballot paper at every man's door, and collect them again, by which the residents might say whether a license should be granted. To come to another point, he saw no reason why the great constitutional principle of majority, no matter how small, having effect. In-

stead of the two-thirds they asked five years ago, why not make the majorit/ rule with regard to the principles of the Bill as much as in their own elections, and their system of voting in the House, where they might turn out a Ministry by a majority of one ; and their point was that every person, man or women, 21 years of age, should have a vote. It was esseutially a woman's question, and why should they not have some share in putting down the gigantic evils of drink, which Sir Chas Burton, the philanthropist, though a brewer, said that if all the horrors of war, pestilence, and famine were summed up they would amount j to nothing as compared with the awful • evilg that had arisen from drink. He •• claimed for women, to be able to give a souuder vote than men in any case where moral reform was concerned. That was proved a hundred times over in America. Before concluding, he desired to say something regarding a few objections he knew woald be raised against the Bill. It would probably be called unconstitutional to take the vote of the people on a matter of this kind — whether, in fact, such an act should be brought into operation or not. It was plebiscite they would say, call it Napoleonic, but what cared he if it were Napoleonic. What was in a name when, as against it was to bo balanced the

good of the State, the welfare of the people at large ? The question was one of the vastest importance, as hon gentlemen knew, aud one which had for centuries demanded the attention of the Imperial Parliament. The hon gentleman then referred to what he called dragging a red herring across the seent — the cry of compensation, aud the idea was maintained by many very worthy men. He had no desire to deal unfairly wi:h the publican but what was he to be compensated for ? He lo3t nothing, his license was granted only for twelve months, and when that time expired, he had no cltim upon them. Then they were told that there was an understanding, but with whom ? Not with the people, who signed petitions to put denvn intemperance. Then the only persons he could have an understanding with were the Licensing Bench. You compensated a person for loss of property, but not for privileges. There never was an instance in England of compensation of anything of that kind, unless it was a life monopoly or something of that sort. He maintained that a publican had his compensation beforehand in the monopoly he enjoyed, and the opportunity for making enormous profits. There waß nothing taken from the publican but his yearly license. His liquor was not taken from his house, if they were to be paid compensation, he would like a statement of accounts to be made out between the publicans aud the people, and the balance struck. In that case he would say, in the words of an English Judge, that for centuries publicans had filled our gaols, lunatic asylums, poor houses, hospitals, and penitentiaries, On that bash he would close accounts with the publicans, and let it be said then on which side the balance was. The hon member, in conclusion, implored the House in the name of all that was holy to carry his Bill through its second reading, and then watch it in Committee, so that" it might, not be torn to tatters, as his Bill of 1873. Let them do this, and help to make the Colony grow up a sober, happy, and prosperous nation.— (Loud applause followed the speech.)