NO-LICENSE PETITION

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 939, 5 March 1908, Page 20

NO-LICENSE PETITION

The following are the terms of a petition to Parliament which was agreed upon at the convention under the auspices of the Oroua No-license League:—

The petition of f he undersigned electors in the electoral district of Oroua, in the Dominion of New Zealand, showeth :— 1. That in the electoral district of Oroua,

as also in 35 other electoral districts, the granting of licenses for the sale of liquor is lawfully continued, notwithstanding that at the last local option poll therein a minority only voted that the granting of such licenses should continue, and an absolu.e majority voted that no such licenses should be granted. 2. That your petitioners pray you to consider the grievous injustice inflicted upon the majority of the voters in this electorate hereby, and petition your honourable House to do wha. is necessary towards this anomaly immediately, especiallv in view of the approaching recurrence in chis year of our Lord, 1908, of the triennial licensing polls.

In support of this their petition that the law be amended to provide that every issue submitted at the licensing polls shall be determined by the majority of those who vote, your petitioners would submit; 1. That the existing law is purely and harshly arbitrary, having not even the pretence of justification of being based on the oft-belauded but unwarranted plea that an exceptional majority is necessary for the due enforcement of no-license, inasmuch as it provides that where a nolicense policy has been lawfully affirmed at the poll it shall be continued, notwithstanding that at the next following poll or polls only a minority of the voters, being over 40 per cent, of them, continues to support it. 2. That in Ashburton, where, mainly through the existence there of a chartered club, and the change of law in relation thereto between the two polls, there was at first a three-fifths majority in favour of no-license, and then an over 40 per cent, minority only, and the administration of the law has improved, notwithstanding the minority vote only in favour of no-license, experience has abundantly shown that no exceptional majority is needed for the due enforcement of no-license.

3. That in their judgment the sole effect of the present law is to give to the licensed liquor trade at the outset at the polls a great and unjust advantage over the people, all of whom are sufferers directly or indirectly by its existence. 4. It is recognised to be right that an absolute majority of those who vote in any electorate shall determine who shall be returned to Parliament to enact legislation affecting the most vital interests of the people, and that in Parliament such legislation shall be determined by the majority of those who vote thereon, and your petitioners cannot see that the question of granting licenses to sell liquor has any claim whatsoever to exceptional treatment as respects the majority to determine it of the electors voting thereon.