The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3117, 24 June 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1881.

Amongst other reports that have been circulated in political circles is one to the effect that Ministers may, probably, drop the Licensing Bill, owing, some say, to the manner in which it haa been twisted out of ifs original shape in committee. Another reason given is tha* Ministers fear that their innocent offspring will be effectually disposed of in the Upper House. It is not at all unlikely that their " lordships" will resent as impertinence the proposed interference with ther club privacy, and either throw the bill out, or eliminate all the pet clauses upon which Ministers, apparently, set so much store. With this prospect before it tbe Government may well coneider it advisable to withdraw the bill, and await better times in which to bring it to maturity. As it stands now the total abstainers, or, rather, we should say, the temperance party, have secured a great victory in making the licensing commissioners an annually elective body. This is undoubtedly an extension of the powers of the people in a right direction. The day is rapidly passing when the real governing power over the people will be permitted to rest in the hands of irresponsible nominees of the Government. It is a strange circumstance that this liberal amendment to the bill was obtained by Sir William Fox against the opposition of a Ministry of professed liberal views, and that the Government felt their defeat keenly is certain from the fact that immediately afterwards che rumor was floated concerning the abandonment of the bill. As the Wanganui Chronicle observes, it is undoubtedly the duty of Ministers, if they believe that harm will accrue to the State from this extension of the powers ot the people, to stake their Ministerial existence rather than agree to the proposal, and if they are about to do so they will deserve credit for courage and patriotism, seeing that the general election is so close at hand. Nevertheless, we are clearly of opinion that it will be unwise of them to let their own belief as to the danger attaching to the proposed alteration in the law outweigh the deliberately recorded opinion of a majority of the people's representatives: if they are merely doubtful as to the expediency of the change, surely they should not enforce their doubt as against the confidence of a greater number. But, while we speak thus, and while we are heartily glad that the people of the colony will soon—if the Licensing Bill amended is passed into law—have full control of the liquor traffic, we are fully alive to the fact that it will entirely depend upon the people themselves whether this principle of election applied to the Licensing Bench will prove a curse or a blessing. It must not be overlooked that the election of a Licensing Commissioner will be a matter entirely different from the election of a member of Parliament. In the latter case, the contest if contest there be is based more or less upon principles, and in case of defeat there is no great loss of material wealth to be deplored by the losing side. But in the election of Licensing Commissioners quite a different state of things will have to be faced. On the one side is arrayed a wealthy and powerful organization whose very existence will depend upon the tendencies of the Licensing Bench; on the other side there are the moneyless and comparatively uninfluential temperance bodies, who are only sustained by a belief in the soundness of their principles. With a contest lying between two such bodies it would not be difficult to tell to which side victory would lean. Therefore we place our reliance for good not upon the efforts which the variouß temperance organizations may put forth, but upon what the policy of the Home country during several centuries has shown to be a fact—namely, that when the people of a country have had larger powers conferred upon them, they have as a whole risen to a sense of their responsibility. That this will be the case under the new licensing law, should it become law, we feel well assured ; and gentlemen will be elected to the position of Licensing Commissioners who will study, not to conserve the material interests of one class, but to secure the greatest good of the greatest number.