SALE OF LIQUOR

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1928, Page 1

SALE OF LIQUOR

NEW SOUTH WALKS DECISION. (Lyttelton Times.) The overwhelming defeat of prohibition in New South Wales suggests, on the surface, that public opinion in the Mother State of Australia is decidedly in favour of the sale ol alcohol under license. Indeed, so emphatic is the vote, 'that it leaves no room for doubt as to tlie state of public opinion on the main issue, quite apart from tbe complications that, according to the prohibition advocates, rendered a true vote impossible. The chief of these complications, ol course, was the compensation provision of the law. New South'Wales used to have a referendum on the prohibition question every third year, hut the poll provided in the amending legislation of 1919 was postponed from time to time, and, ultimately, in 1923 it Was resolved

- M that no poll should be taken before! September, 1928. There lias, therefore, lieen no reliable tost of public opinion on the subject for nearly a decade, and, in the meantime, it is apparent that the prohibition sentiment has been losing ground. The sale of liquor in New South Wales is now carried on under the law of 1923, which, following in its main particulars the Victorian system, provided for the creation of licensing boards and Licensing Courts, empowered to reduce tbe number df licenses in any district and to pay compensation for licenses extinguished. While the boards are reducing the number of licenses, the money for compensation is derived from a fund contributed by owners and licensees of hotels, and bused on the value of tlie liquor sold. If complete prohibition were carried, tho -compensation payable would he enormous, and would necessarily have to be drawn from the Consolidated Fund. The amount that would be required for this purpose lias been variously estimated at from £20,000,000 to £30,000,000. No doubt tbe contemplation of this huge figure must have had some bearing on the voting, but just which way it influenced the poll it is difficult to say. Clearly, convinced prohibitionists would be quite logical if they voted against prohibition weighted with the compensation clause, and on the other hand, many waverers might readily be persuaded to vote for prohibition, seeino- that the clement of hardship woulu be"eliminated by’the compensation ot those dispossessed .of their businesses. It seems tolerably clear that the compensation issue would not be sufficien , i„ itself, to swing the result one way or the other, and, even if we assume that its weight was all against any

clmirne, the conclusion remains unshaken that the people of New South V a es do not want’ prohibition. Publicists anticipated that continuance would he carried, hut no one imagined that, there would he so huge a disparity between the prohibition and continuance votes. So far, Australian 'opinion has shown no inclnmtum in tavour or prohibition. A vote is due to be taken in Queensland tins yeai . amb thereafter n local option vote will he taken every seven years. In Victoria there is a poll on the question every eight years, and the next will lie in 1030. South Austral . last year decided that licenses should be neither increased nor decreased, and the last poll taken in Western Austral„i a small one, resulted. in the defeat of prohibition by 77,000 votes to 41 000. Polls are taken in Mestei" Australia in every fifth year. Tasmania has purely local option.