THE LICENSING BILL.

Evening Star, Issue 4139, 2 June 1876, Page 4

THE LICENSING BILL.

To the Editor.. Sm,—There are one or two. inaccuracies in your leading article of Wednesday evening which kindly permit me to correct. The Licensing Bill brought down to the House by Mr Pox in 1873, if enacted, would not have been a “ Maine Liquor Law ” on any scale great or smalT. The “ permissive principle” to which allusion is made, differs essentially from that of the Maine Law; The first remits the question of “license’

or “no license” to the vote and of the people in each separate licensing district. The latter, by Act of the State Legislature, absolutely prohibits the sale of liquor within the State. Then the Assembly did not “refuse to accept the permissive principle,” but. .actually (embodied it in the Act. I refer you .in proof to clause 23 of the Act of 1873, which states “ when certificates' are not to. be granted. It was proposed in 1874 to -repeal this clause; but after-feeUhg the temper of the House on the subject the Government withdrew the proposal.' Again, the hours of the barmaids were not limited by Fox’s Act of 1873, but by ■ the Amendment Act of 1874, clause 42 “Time during which females may be employed in bars.” But once more* Mr Pox’s complaint against" the Government was not that. it did not set the machinery of his act. in motion, but that it proclaimed licensing districts so extensive as to make, the practical application to them of the provisions of the Act impossible. Mr Fox further complained, not of the Government'particularly but of the-House, .that in passing his-Act itstripped itof all .its working machinery, so. that there was absolutely nothing left for the Government tdsetin motion.--! am, &c., Observes.

Dunedin, June 2,