KING COUNTRY LICENSES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5009, 4 August 1926, Page 3

KING COUNTRY LICENSES

PETITION FOR A POLL. SLY GROG SELLING DEPLORED. Inhabitants, of .the King Country to the number of 5356 have petitioned Parliament for the right to volte on the question of whether licenses for the sale of liquor should be issued in that are,a. The petitioners point out that when the area, was proclaimed a dry area it was practically a native reserve with few European settlers. Now the Europeans outnumber the Maoris. They further state that the law' does not now prohibit the introduction of liquor but merely its open s.ale.. “Your petitioners,” the document continues, ‘‘view with alarm the' widespread and pernicious results of the sly grolg traffic, which, in spite of the ackhoweldged vigilance o'! the police, cannot be kept in check, ajid they consider the effects of this traffic, particularly on the younger generation, to be deplorable, in the extreme. The evils and abuses of the present system would be reduced to a minimum if the sale oif liquor in the King Country we,rte permitted but properly controlled. It is just and equitable, that the inhabitants of the King Country, both European and Maori, should be allowed a voice in their own government on this question, and that the licensing aire.a should be submitted to the votes of the electors and determined thereby.”