THE LIQUOR QUESTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 272, 6 August 1918, Page 9

THE LIQUOR QUESTION

» MODERATE LEAGUE'S ATTITUDE. The general executive of (lie New Zealand Moderate League mot last week, Mr. D. M. Findlay presiding. The pro6ent activity of the Prohibition Party to secure a special referendum on tho liquor question was discussed, and a, statement of the league's attitude u-as adopted. In the course of tho statement, the following occurs'"Extremists nr» attempting to force a referendum at a tirna when tho public mind is occupied with larger mattors vital to tho existence of tho Empire, and when nearly 100,000 men will bo absent from New Zealand on active service, and tho Moderate League, while deploring tho necessity for action at this time, asserts that organised steps must now be taken to protect the liberty of the large, but silent, majority of moderates. The Moderate League, while holding that the people should not be divided by any referendum on domestic matters at tnis juncture, advocates in accordance with its platform published in 1914-that when next the citizens are called upon to express their views on the liquor question at the. ballot-box provision shall be made for them not only to decide whether the licensed trade continue as at present or whether Prohibition becomes law; t»;f that the question of 'national ownership' shall be an additional issue; believing that tho ballot-paper as it now stands does not give the moderate section an opportunity of recording its true opinion."