NO COMPENSATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 266, 30 July 1918, Page 3

NO COMPENSATION

SIR ROBERT STOUT'S VIEWS

ON LIQUOR

PROHIBITION AS A WAR MEASURE

Sir Robert .Stout, in the course of an nddrcss delivered at the Unitarian Church on Sunday night, gave his views on the proposal of the National Efficiency Board for prohibition of tlio liquor traffic with compensation. "Tho .National Efficiency Hoard," 1.0 said, "lias recommended that alcohol shall bo abolished. Will you help? Unitarians' do not rely on past (sacrifices for the salvation of humanity: they 10coguiso that if humanity is to go forward, men and women of to-day must make sacrifices for their raeo and for humanity here and now. Let us, as individuals, set an example following the example of the United States and Canada ill abolishing the trade in intoxicating liquors. I understand that a suggestion has been made that New Zealand shall, to use an American phrase, become dry, but that a vast sum of munev—some .£1,000,000 or .£5,000,(100—shall lie paid to those engaged' in the traffic as compensation for depriving tliem of tlio monopoly to sell intoxicants. The basis for this proposal is, first, thai; alcohol drinking is a great social evil; and, second, tlio traffic is a most profitable) 0110. If these grounds are admitted, I fail to understand oil what principle of civil or moral fights compensation should bo paid. There has been no pledge by tlio State that this monopoly can be or will be continued, Many districts of New Zealand are dry, and no compensation has been paid, and most of the United Stales and most of the provinces of Canada are dry, and no compensation has been paid, and we have had' the bars of our hotels closed at 6 o'clock, and no compensation has been paid. Why compensate or compromise witlva tradb which is injuring the State? If we have vast sums of money to spend, there are many reforms for which money is required. We need money for our industries, for our public health, for the public education, for the introduction of electricity, for the completion of our railways, etc. If compensation is to be paid, would it not be more just to compensate the dependants who have been injured, through the drunkenness of the father and mother? In our prisons and mental hospitals are many victims of alcohol, and, alas, there are many who have come to an untimely end by its use. Should not the families of those be compensated? In somo States of America there ie a Civil Damage Law, which enables a family which has been injured by tho breadwinner being hurt or killed through alcohol to sue for compensation from the supplier of the liquor? If the Slate conscience was keen, is there any doubt how the moral issue would be settled? Further, what is this but a compensation for an unearned increment? The value of public-house property has been raised bv public-house licenses being restricted," and by the increase of population."