SOBER NORWAY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 892, 11 April 1907, Page 21

SOBER NORWAY.

The commissioners appointed by the Scottish Temperance Legislation Board last August to visit Norway and investigate the working of the liquor licensing laws in that country, have followed up their interim report by an exhaustive review of their inquiry, accompanied by elucidatory charts and statistical tablesThe commissioners were Mr John Cowan, ex-master of the Edinburgh Merchant Company; Professor James Seth professor of moral philosophy, Edinburgh University; Mr John Mann, jun., chartered accountant, Glasgow; and Mr Hector Munro Ferguson, of Assynt, Novar, all of whom sign the report. Within the past half-century, the commissioners say, Norway has been transformed from one of the most drunken of European nations into one of the most sober, and this they attribute, apart from the general advance in education, to two main causes —the growth of a strong temperance sentiment and progressive temperance legislation, under which the people are invested with powers of local con-> trol, with considerable latitude in the choice of the means of control. The sparsely-populated country districts have the power of an indirect local veto, while the towns have the option of direct local veto of spirits, or “management” by disinterested companies, known as “Samlags.” So far from being antagonistic forces, these systems aid each other. The commissioners explain the constitution of the Samlag as follows:— In the towns of Norway the Town Council is the licensing authority, and fixes the number of spirit licenses required to meet the reasonable convenience of the town, after the town has decided by vote that the traffic in spirits shall be carried on within its bounds. These licenses are then granted to a disinterested company called a Samlag, which thus holds a

monopoly of the retail trade in spirits. The Town Council retains the right of supervision over all the operations of this company. The committee, which apportions the surplus profits, consists of an equal number of representatives of the shareholders and of the Town Council. The initiative regarding the destination of the surplus rests with the directors of the company, who made proposals to this committee, but the ultimate decision is not carried into effect until it has been approved by the Governor of the district after consultation with the magistracy and the Town Council. Since the establishment of the Sam'ags about 000 has been expended on “objects of public benefit.” During the past eight years the proportion accruing to the State has been increased and set apart till 1910 to form the nucleus of an old age pension fund, which now amounts to £soo,ooo. In Sweden the surpluses are used to reduce the burden of the rates, and therefore the towns have a very tangible interest in the liquor traffic, whereas that interest is entirely absent from the municipal politics of Norway, and the purity of Norwegian municipal life is safeguarded against one of the most in-< sidious and deadly kinds of attack.