The Licensed Victuallers' Gazette

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 710, 15 October 1903, Page 23

The Licensed Victuallers' Gazette

THE SHILLY-SHALLYING POLICY.

The prohibitionists are heaping anathemas on the head of the Premier because he will not place all the machinery of the law at their services to hound down the _ Trade and harass everybody who does not believe that the devil resides in alcohol. The shrieking of these fanatics will not increase the small sum of the sympathy for their cause felt by the moderate party, but neither will it, on the other hand, secure additional consideration for the Government, whose dilly-dallying with the liquor question is deplorable from the point of view not only of those whose vital interests are involved, but also from that of the impartial observer. The law as it stands gives the no-license party a great deal more power than they ought to have; it permits them not only to determine whether the licensed houses used by other people shall be closed or reduced in number, but it enables them to act as judges in questions concerning which they are also the advocates on one side. The interests of those who have put their money into the liquor business are tieated not only with open injustice, but with contumely, and the members of the Trade are regarded as suspects, who if they have not committed a crime are habitually meditating a breach of the Statute. In cases where any doubt exists, the old principle of observing the statu* quo ante is ruthlessly violated, and the Trade has to suffer, as in the cases of Newtown, Mataura, and Chalmers. Always it is assumed that the advantage in dubious issues should lie with those who have no material interests at stake, while those who have sunk their capital should be in many cases ruined and in all robbed. If the law were so amended as to secure to the Trade the same right to the protection of its property as is accorded to every other class of the community, the operation of the democratic principle of rule by the majority would cease to be dishonest, however annoying and offensive it might continue to be. The duty of restoring to the Trade its rights to the enjoyment of its own prosperity has been recognised as morally binding by the British Cabinet, and Mr Seddoh, who professes to lead in all matters affecting the rights of the people, might with infinite credit to himself have taken the first steps, in this connection. It is nothing short of a scandal that the law should ever have been permitted to become an instrument capable of being used by oce class to commit an outrage upon another, blit the mischief has been done, and an honourable Government entrusted with the task of securing common justice to all could lose no time in removing the evil.