STATE CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2312, 3 October 1908, Page 1

STATE CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

Of the Rev. R. B. S. Hammond, who is to lecture here in connection with the no-license compaign, it is stated that though he has been a total abstainer and a- temperance worker for many years, Mr. Hammond has not long been an advocate of no-license. He was attracted by the idea of State or municipal control and for five years he earnestly advocated the Gothenburg system, lecturing in favor of it and debating with other people who claimed that other remedies were more effective. Three years ago the New South Wales Government resumed a large area of hind in .Sydney, known as the Rooks. There were 37 public houses in the district and Mr. Hammond, thought this would ho an excellent opportunity for a State control experiment. He urged that the houses should be put under either State or municipal control and he drafted suggestions for alternative bills to meet the case, but while lie was urging this lie was reading everything lie could get hold of upon the liquor'question, and ho came to the .conclusion that he was on the wrong lines, that prohibition, was really the most satisfactory remedy. Then lie burned all Ins plans and drafts of bills. Asked what tlie New South Wales Government had done ’with the 37 public-houses in the Rocks area, Mr. Hammond said that* they owned them, but under provisions of the Licensing Act they lot them out to tenants. These had always been the worst public houses in Sydney, and though the Government had power to turn their tenants out at a month’s notice there had been little or no • improvement in the character of the trade done by these houses since they took possession.