MELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1917, Page 4

MELLINGTON NOTES.

(Our Special Correspondent)

THE LIQUOR BTLL

BEFORE THE COUNCIL

Wellington, Oct 5

The Sale of Liquor Restriction Bill is before the Legislative Council to-day after having been overhauled by the Statutes Revision Committee and seems likely to have a fairly expeditious passage through its remaining stages. The only mateiial amendment recommended by the Committee is that six o’clock closing should come into operation on December 1 instead of on November 1 and probably this will be accepted by tlie Council and by the House without any very strenuous protest. Even the more 'moderate prohibitionists admit that a month does not allow the licensees and the owners sufficient time in which to accommodate themselves to the new conditions. The other amendments to the measure are really consequent.ional addi-1 tions defining the hours during which certain people may be on licensed premises after the bar is closed and so forth LIMITING HOSPITALITY. Perhaps the most embarrassing of these new clauses is the one which provides that no liquor shall be consumed on the premises by any person, oilier than the licensee and members of his family and lodgers, during the hours when the bar is closed, whether at meals or otherwise. This will mean that the lodger who takes a friend to dine with him after six o’clock will have to sip his wine or whisky alone while his guest regalis himself on tea or mineral water. i.u this respect chartered clubs will be on exactly the same footing as hotels, and one of the rather farfetched arguments being urged against the measure is that it will lead to staid family men taking up their permanent residence in clubs in order that, as ledgers they may enjoy their evenings as hitherto with congenial companions. ATTITUDE OK THE COUNCIL. •

It was fondly hoped by the opponents of the .Bill that, the Statute Revision Committee would recommend amendments which would cast the whole measure into the melting pot again, but if the oilier side is content to accept their “good win and be thankful.” as Air -Massey has put it. nothing of this kind will happen. The “ New Zealand Times ” ibis morning makes a desperate appeal to the Council to save the Constitution which will lie in grave danger, it says, if the Rill is allowed to pass.

“ The Constitution has been flouted.” it declares, “and is in danger of perpetual instability.” Rut a majority of the Council is not, taking that view of the question and even if it were the leaders of the House, who may not be exactly keen for prohibition, would scarcely stultify themselves by flagrantly reversing their decision of a fortnight ago. REPRESENTATION. The report of the Boundary Commissioners defining the new electoral districts in accordance with last year's census did not come as a surprise to those members of the House who had given any careful study to the figures. Tfie results, indeed, were very closely predicted in this column on the eve of the census, just a year ago, the transfer of three seats from the Sontli Island to the North being foreshadowed and the districts immediately affected being indicated. The elimination ot Central Otago and Alotueka wasjnevitafile and apparently Selwyn has been extinguished by the need for making up the “ quotas” m the North Otago and West Coast districts. The minor changes in the boundaries have been necessarily very extensive, but from the electors’ point of view there may be no disadvantage in members having occasionally to appeal to revised constituencies. THE POLITICAL CAPITAL. Air Anstey, the member for Waitaki, revived in the House yesterday a very old grievance the provinces, North and South, have against the capital city. Proportional representation is a very admirable thing in theory and, for the matter of: that, in practice, but it does not work out quite equitably in the case of Wellington. The capital city in addition to having its prescribed share of representation under the Constitutiieu, also lias ten resident Alinisters, including just now the two biggest men in the Cabinet, drawn from outside di.-tricts and

lift}- or sixty private members subject for at least four months of the year to direct local influence.

Mr Anstey suggested fo the Prime Minister that Wellington would be very well represented indeed if it did not send a single member to Pm Haiti ont, as is the case with the capital of the United States, and Mr Afassey replied, seemingly only half in jest, tliat the suggestion would have serious consideration when electoral matters came before the House*.