THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1909 THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 141, 22 March 1909, Page 2

THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1909 THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

| Still they come! Liquor cases are : still usurping most of the time of the King Country sittings of the Magistrates' Court. The law with regard to liquor in the Rohe Potae seems to be in as big a muddle as the Native land laws, and it is by no means creditable that the present state of things should continue. It is generally assumed that the district was proclaimed a prohibited area in order to prevent the Natives having free access to liquor. The were doubtless other reasons, but roughly the foregoing reason predominated. Had the general conditions of the district continued the same as when the proclamation was deemed necessary, there would be little to cavil at. In the interval, however, settlement has progressed, and the country, from being a sealed book to the Pakeha has become Europeanised. The Pakeha has brought with him the habits arwf traditions of liberty-loving people, and the newcomer to the King Country finds it difficult to understand that his cherished privileges are curtailed,

From being aland in wliich the King's writ did not run the Kin;: Co;;:.try has developed into aland where the King's writ, in one respect, may "re a means of persecution. Time ar.d again we have seen people cal!ed upon to prove that liquor they have brought into the ' district was not intended for sale, when j the general public knew that no such j intention existed. By the infliction of j fines on "these people there is little doubt that in the majority of cases a miscarriage of justice, broadly speaking, was perpetrated. Considered from all points, it is high time an end was put to this state of things. There is no question of license or no-license attached to the issue, nor do we uphold ; the liquor traffic in any sense. Our | people are living under conditions of j restraint which do not obtain else- | where in the Dominion, and it is high j time such restraint was relaxed. If j such conditions were ever necessary the time of their utility has long since passed. Our people are as law abiding as those of other districts, and by claiming to be placed under the same laws in all respects as the remainder of the Dominion, they are merely claiming their right. Let the district continue no-license by all means, and let the usual no-license conditions govern the liquor traffic therein. It is contended by a section of the prohibition party that the Europeans knew the district when they came to live in it, and therefore should be content to live under those conditions. There is little need to point out the fallacy of such an argument, which, if applied generally, would be an effectual bar to progress of any description. In claiming for King Country residents equal rights and privileges with the rest of the Dominion, we are adopting unassailable ground, and the sooner our people awaken to the position, and assert their rights, the sooner will the present iniquitous infliction be removed. Prohibition advocates, and people with less extreme views can meet on a common ground in the matter. The existing state of affairs is inimical to the district as a whole and until wc are placed on an equal footing with people in other parts of the Domiinon, there is bound to be widespread dissatisfaction.