HOTEL LICENSES.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 133, 15 June 1901, Page 1

HOTEL LICENSES.

I By Telegraph—Press Association. Timaru, last night. At an adjourned meeting of the Licensing Committee all borough licenses were renewed on condition that more effective I means of escape from fire are arranged by fixed ladders or stairs, and a spare ladder for use at street windows. MR STANFORD’S REMARKABLE SPEECH. The following is a report of the statement from the Bench made by Mr Stanford, S.M., the brief telegraphic message in the Times having aroused much interest :

“ When I have seen crime, misery and want produced by tho excessive use of alcohol, I have often wished that I could see eye to eye, and believe as those believe, who think that prohibition is the true remedy. I would, indeed, now accept that cure if I could believe it possible; but Ido not. There are regions of life on which law cannot act —domains in our social organism in which coercion is impossible. Given a condition of things where no small proportion of law-abiding citizens use alcohol, and approve its moderate consumption, prohibition is impossible, even though one man in every ten were police, and one or two more informers though every Magistrate a Draco, and though the punishment imprisonment for life. But when I assert that to carry out prohibition is impossible, I use the word in its accurate sense, as meaning the entire cessation of the use of alcohol. I have not lived in a prohibition district, and do not, therefore, know whether a prohibition law diminishes or increases the use of strong drink. It is evident from repeated prosecutions that in Clutha, at any rate, the sale of drink continues, notwithstanding the existing law. American experience seems to show that in towns prohibition is inoperative, but in the country districts it to some extent reduces the inducements to drink. Would it not be wiser and more in accordance with the habits of our race to alter, improve and remodel the existing system of license, than destroy it altogether, and then build up another ? “ Can this be done then ? Is it possible to so improvo the present licensing system as to make it satisfactory to that large body of temperate people who loathe and abhor excess, but have no objection at all to the moderate use of beer or spirits ? The answer is, I believe, to be found in some modified form of what is commonly known as the Gothenburg system. The main feature in this is the elimination of the element of personal profit to the seller of strong drink. Whether this is accomplished by the municipality, State, or company (with limited profits) is not very material, so long as certain safeguards are provided. Of these, the main provision must be that the profits of the trade .must not be used in relief of taxation, or of rates, but exclusively devoted to the creation and development of such methods of recreation as may approve themselves to the managers. I place this safeguard in the front rank, because experience proves that where any profit is made—whether by individual or corporate body—an effort is sure to be made to increase those profits by pushing the sale of strong drink. If legislation were passed empowering either a muncipality, county, or company to purchase at arbitration prices all the hotels, or even lease them for a period, within a given locality, under unnecessary restrictions, an opportunity would be given of great value for testing the utility of the method I suggest for dealing with the social problem of the liquor traffic, Under the present licensing system, it is the interest of all concerned to push the sale of strong drink, while under the modified system I suggest—where salaried managers are employed—such interest would totally disappear. There would be no temptation prompting such' a manager to break any, existing law.by supplying drink to a drunken man, or after hours, or on Sunday- I have spoken of a company as well as a"municipality purchasing the licensed houses in a locality. The of such company would have to be limited by law to, say, 5 per cent; all profits beyond that sum to be devoted to such objects as free libraries, recreation grounds, baths, gymnasiums, public parks, and such other matters of the same kind as may approve themselves to the framers of the measure, providing always that they are not applied in the relief of rates or taxation. “ I have sketched out a feasible scheme, but am, of course, aware that a multitude of detail points are left untouched for want of time. I will only add that my proposal appears to fall into the natural national lines of reform rather than revolution, to be improvement of an existing law rather than the substitution of a new one, and, as such, likely to commend itself to the best men of all sides.”