THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL AND SIX O'CLOCK CLOSING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 64, 10 December 1918, Page 6

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL AND SIX O'CLOCK CLOSING

Sir—l have, rend your interesting report of the debate in the Upper House on the Liquor Bill, and parficujarl.v that part of it which deals with six o'clock closing. Everyone knows, who knows' anything at all about the legislative enactments of this country, that the Act of last session which wns passed on October 27 making provision for six o'clock closing was a war measure only, and so honourable have Legislative Councillors become that they have, denounced this "scrap of paner'' with as much indifference as if their own legislative enactments had had no existence. The Legislative Council passed an Act entitled the Sale of Liquor Restrictions in 1917,' which included this clause:— ".This Act shall remain in force during the continuance of the present war with Germany and for six months thereafter and no longer." Now at'the first opportunity members of Parliament, \members of the Legislative Council, repudiate their honourable undertaking with perhaps much less concern than the Germans repudiated the undertaking tn maintain for all time the neutrality, of Belgium. .If members of Parliament and members of the Legislative Council set such examples to the whole of the community, what may we expect from the ordinary and common manhood ot the country?—l am, etc., POLITICUS.

Sir,—Allow me to protest through the medium of your columns against the inclusion of the 6 o'clock closing of hotels. Such a thin" is absolutely nothing more or less than class legislation—one law for the rich and another for the poor who cannot afford a wine cellar. Finally, let me ask, When is Mr. Mnssey gnin? to take a strong; stand on any question which might jeopardise liis present position in the. House of Parliament? If he is not a stranger man at the Peace Conference than lie is in New Zealand it is a waste of time and money for him to go Home.—l am, etc., GEORGE J. SMITH. Dunedin.