LIQUOR QUESTION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 19 November 1927, Page 5

LIQUOR QUESTION

WILL BILL COME ON AGAIN! STILL ON THE ORDER PAPER. MR. HOLLAND’S STATEMENT. (Per Press Association). Wellington, Nov. 19. Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, handed the following statement to the press:— “As Leader of the Opposition 1 am being inundated with telegrams and other messages urging me to bring pressure to bear upon the Prime Minister to proceed with the Licensing Billl. Some of the messages contain the demand that the bill be reintroduced and all of iflie bodies and individual correspondents who protest against the Prime Minister’s action lose sight of one fact which should be obvious to those who insist that the bill should be reintroduced. I would point out that it is still on the order paper and the Prime Minister can place it first on the list whenever he wishes. NO INFLUENCE WITH PREMIER. “I regret that I have no influence with the Prime Minister in the matter of arranging the order of business, but I would point out that members of the Government party are in an altogether different position. “The Reform party includes a substantial majority of prohibitionists, and if these members are really sincere in desiring the bill to come on again they should have no difficulty in achieving their object. Everything depends on the extent to which they are prepared to exercise the power which they possess within their own party. If the bill is not allowed to proceed it will only be because the prohibitionists in the ranks of the Reform party do not desire it to proceed.”