SIR ROBERT STOUT’S VIEWS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15788, 9 April 1919, Page 5

SIR ROBERT STOUT’S VIEWS.

ABOLITION OF LIQUOR TOADS i'AVOFIIKD. OVER THIRD 01' CRIME DIRECTLY HUH TO LIQUOR. (PublLhod by Arrangement.) Tire secretary of the New Zealand Alliance calk'd on Mir Holier! .Stout to ask if he would make any pronouncement on llio use made by tlio “Moderates of some past speeches of bis. Sir Robert said; “In my opinion, the quotation that has been published from my article to the Timaru Herald (1914) might mislead people, as it is taken from its setting. J was not dealing with the right of tho State to maintain its existence, and to maintain tho health of tho pople. I believe it is tho duty of tho State to even insist on conscription if it is necessary for the defence of - the nation, ad I also believe that the State cannot allow poisons to lx) sold at the will c£ any person, it must secure the health of the people, and this licensing question is a question of health and of morality, and if we find anything interfering with the health of the people or witn them, either physically or morally, it is the duty of the Slate to interfere and to preserve tho nation from destruction. “Personal liberty must give away to the State. “I understand it has been stated that lam opposed to compensation.” Our Parliament, by its Licensing Act, 1910, gave compensation, for if national prohibition were carried, licenses were to continue for four and a half years. That would mean, a waste of perhaps eighteen mi lions of money. Th© proposed compensation was put m to' prevent the trade being ended suddenly, wheraas tho four and a naif millions is proposed with a view to ending the trad© immediately, and it is for the people to say whether they will pay four and a half millions to end the sal© immediately. or pay eighteen millions spnead over four years, and that is the question people have to determine. It is not for mo to dictate to any electors. Any man, of ordinary coramonsense could only giro one answer. “Tho reason I have taken a keen, interest in the liquor question has been, what I have seen in my stay in New Zealand—now ever fifty-five years. I know' what lias happened to many of the boys who were under mo at school. I was a teacher in tho years ’64' to ’67. Many of my brightest boys have fallen in the "race of life through Intoxicants. Many men who would have been a glory to New Zealand have passed away from the same cause. 1 know from my experience ns a lawyer and a Judge that at least one-third of the criminals directly, and many more indirectly, found themselves in gaols from indulgence in iuioxicating liquor.