IMPORTATION OF LIQUOR.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 317, 20 August 1896, Page 11

IMPORTATION OF LIQUOR.

If the liquor laws of this colony should be amended on the lines of the Premier’s Bill now before the House of Representatives, the question of national prohibition of the manufacture, importation, and sale of intoxicating liquors will be brought within the category of practical politics. It is therefore of importance to note that some doubt hrs existed as to the stability of laws passed for the complete abolition of the liquor trade. About a year ago, it will be remembered, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Provincial Legislatures of the Dominion had no power to enact prohibitory laws. The matter was carried to the Privy Council on appeal, in the form of a series of' seven questions, 5 to which their lordships were asked to reply. The decision was given in May last, but the deliverance is so “judicial” that it leaves the subject still shrouded in doubt. The points that are clearly set forth are—(l) that a Provincial Legislature has only “ qualified power” to prohibit the sale of intoxicants ; (2) that it has no power to prohibit the importation of such liquors ; and (3) that it has full power to prohibit their manufacture within the province. The judgment is interpreted in Canada to mean that Provincial Legislatures have a right to pass a local option law, but have not the right to pass a law applying prohibition to the province generally. The Temperance Party in Canada claims to be well satisfied with the decision, because it so far clears the subject of doubt, by showing that in the provinces attention must be concentrated upon local option, and that in order to carry prohibition an attempt must be made to send to the Dominion House of Commons a majority of mem bers pledged to that measure. The interest of the decision to us in New Zealand centres around the distinction that is drawn between a Provincial and a General Legislature. Although this colony is sometimes loosely referred to as an English “ province,” we apprehend chat, in the strict legal sense, our Legislature is not a provincial but a general one, ond therefore has full power to legislate for national prohibition. Our position would be analogous to that of Canada if New Zealand were one of a group of federated colonies with a Central Legislature. At the same time the experience of Canada ought to warn New Zealand prohibitionists that they may be called upon to incur great expense in order to obtain a definition of the constitutional powers with regard to the restraint of the liquor trade. It will also, probably, have the effect of causing all the prohibitionists of Australasia to enrol themselves as anti-federationists, since federation would restrict their power of abolishing the traffic in intoxicants. — Canterbury Times.