ANOTHER BLUNDER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1833, 20 August 1913, Page 6

ANOTHER BLUNDER.

"It is the plain duty of the Opposition to exhaust every method of constitutional procedure to prevent further Supply and compel an immediate appeal to the country." This declaration)-which appeared in the columns of the local anti-Reform journal yesterday, has a peculiar significance in view of the fact that our contemporary, in addition to being a mouthpiece of the Opposition, is also the recognised organ of the big brewery interests. As the member of _ Mataura, Mit. Anderson, showed in the House of Representatives i the other evening, the controlling influences behind the paper are largely representative of the big bmvery owners of the Dominion. How, it may be asked, docs this bear on the appeal of the anti-lleform journal to the members of the Opposition, seeing that what *is being urged is merely a matter of party tactics 2 Tho answer is obvious 'enough to those who have' taken any close interest in the licensing question. The brewers want a dissolution just now much more anxiously than do the members of tho Opposition, and their organ in urging members to stonewall and block the business of Parliament is merely striving to make the party the tool of the brewing interests. It, as usual, however, has blundered clumsily over its task, and is more likely to prejudice than to benefit the interests it has been kept alive to serve. Those who wish for enlightenment as to the purpose behind this latest move will find it in the Licensing Act of 1908. Clause 12, Sub-Section b, of that Act, reads as follows:—

If at any time Parliament is dissolved before it has been two years in existence, then at the taking of the electoral poll for the new Parliament no licensing poll shall be taken, but tho result of the licensing .poll taksn at the then last nreeeding general election shall continue in force until such licensing poll is airain taken simultaneously with tho electoral poll next after the dissolution of such new Parliament.

In other words, if a dissolution of the present Parliament is secured at any time up to December next there will be no licensing poll until the following general election, presumably three years later. This would mean approximately a.period of five years between tho two licensing polls, instead of the usual period of three years. Tho object of the organ of the brewing monopoly in urging the Opposition to force a dissolution becomes apparent when viewed in the fight of the facts set out above. It wishes to make the party the tool of the big brewers in an endeavour to dodge the licensing poll of 1914. Last evening, when speskiug in the House of Representatives, Mr. L. M. Isitt, who was at one time a paid advocate of the Prohibition party, evidently felt called on to make some sort of apology for the company he now finds himself associated with politically. In a laboured fashion lie sought to explain away tho influence which tho big brewing interests exercise on the Liberal party. Will ho pretend to deny that what is aimed at by the brewers' organ in its issue of yesterday would produce the result we have staled above? Will he, and Mr. Laurenson and Mr. Ell and other pledged Prohibitionists in the ranks of the "Liberal" party dare to publicly announce their refusal to be made the means of enabling the brewing interests to dodge the licensing poll of 1914 ! Will Mk. Isitt do this," or will he instead vote with his new political ally, Mr. Vigor Brown, to outwit his old Prohibitionist friends of the New Zealand Alliance 1 The frantic desire of thebrewers' organ to secure a _ dissolution is doomed to disappointment. The a.nti-Raformers know perfectly v/cll that they dare not attempt to block the business of Parliament in the manner proposed; firstly, because they could not do it successfully, and, secondly, because they know the country would not tolerate it. If the brewing interests, however, persist in attempting to use the "Liberal" party to serve their ends, Mr. Massey might put a stop to their meddling by passing an Act to provide that in the event of a dissolution at any time after a Parliament has been in existence 18 months, the lioensing poll shall bo held in the usual way at tho same time as the general election fol-

lowing tlio dissolution. The Prohibitionists, we understand, arc seeking this amendment of the existing law, and there are very few members of the House_ who would venture to oppose a Bill on such lines, particularly if a general election happened to be in prospect a few weeks ahead. If the brewing interests are well advised, they will keep their fingers out of the political pic, or they may get them badly burned.