Waiapu Church Gazette. Monday, September 2nd, 1918. The Liquor Question.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume IX, Issue 15, 2 September 1918, Page 116

Waiapu Church Gazette. Monday, September 2nd, 1918. The Liquor Question.

We have received a copy of a petition being circulated for signature by "The National Council of New Zealand."

The petition sets forth that the issues hitherto presented on the ballot paper, viz., National Prohibition and National Continuance, failed to elicit the conscientious views of a large number of the voters. There are certainly a very large number of people who do not desire National Prohibition but are firmly convinced of the iniquity of the present system m which private profit directly encourages the sale of liquor m as large quantities as possible.

Uncertainty of tenure, whilst prohibition is hanging as a threat over the trade, only adds one more incentive to hotelkeepers and owners to sell as much liquor as possible while they have the opportunity. It would be scarcely possible to devise a system better calculated than the present to encourage drunkenness and evasion! of the law. The great majority of people would unhesitatingly vote for the abolition of the trade as at present conducted; but hitherto no alternative has been submitted except entire prohibition. There are many systems of national control, but any one of them would be infinitely better than the system of private profit. The National Council asks that a third issue be placed on the ballot paper, "I vote for national ownership," that each voter be allowed to vote on one issue only and that a bare majority shall be sufficient to carry the issue it supports.

National ownership is defined as the acquisition of the whole of the trade (compensation being paid to the owners m Government debentures), and the placing of the whole

trade of manufacture, importation and sale m the hands of commissioners.

We have no authority to speak on behalf of the Diocese or anyone else, but we decidedly think that the proposed addition to the ballot paper would provide reasonable relief to' the large body of voters who cannot conscientiously vote for either Prohibition or Continuance and have hitherto been forced either to record their vote for. the less obnoxious of the two proposals or lose their privilege of voting altogether.