KING COUNTRY LICENSES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 216, 13 December 1909, Page 2

KING COUNTRY LICENSES.

Deputation 'c Piimc Minister.] I Messrs L. j c (Ohakunej. 1 ' censes in tl r \ granted b; l i Council, v.m tr con Thursda to j him in viev ol t f pressed his i tci tic 01 i legislation to d°al \it tr l Mr Jennings, Ml 3 , ~ it i > Samuel, M.L C , v eis also pic c W. Baucke of Te Kuiti, who, it stated, would have been sp-ci qualified to state the case from the point of view of the Maoris. ?zs expected to b ; present, but did not put in an appearance until the interview i was over. The deputation was introduced by Mr Jennings, and the spokesman was Mr Jacobs, who stated that he was deputed by the representatives of the King Country to put before the Premier the case of those holding licensse in that district. At the time i they applied for the license-? the district was supposed to be included in what was known as the Rohe Potae, but later it was shown that it was acquired by the Government in 1882, and that the Treaty of Waitangi did not apply. Previous to the granting of these licenses there was not the slightest difficulty about the importation of liquor into the King Country, and sly grog selling was prevalent. They knew cases in which £1 was paid for a bottle of whisky, whereas as now 6s was paid for a bottle of whisky of much better quality. He understood that the Prime Minister intended to introduce legislation dealing with the matter. If he (the Prime Minister) attempted to put an end to the existing licenses it would in no way interfere with the importation of liquor inot the district. "It can't stop it," said Mr Jacobs, "or so lam led to believe. We don't ask for any favour from the Government in this connection; we only ask that a vote be taken on the question, leaving it to the licensing committee to decide what class of licenses should be granted. The trouble with regard to the granting of. these licenses had not been caused by the people of the district, but by the people of Invercargill, Timaru and Christchurcn. How could they know the state of affa'irs existing in that district? The deputation only asked that the Premier bring in legislation to deal with the question in such a manner that licenses should remain as they are pending a vote of the people. He (Mr Jacobs) guaranteed that if a vote of the people was taken there would be a majority of 3000 in favour of license. At present a man could not get into the district with a flask of whisky in his pocket; in fact, some people had been fined £2O for having liquor in their possession, and had had to go to goal because they could not pay. Mr Cody pointed out that the holders of wholesale licenses were not allowed to sell liquor to Maoris. The Hon. O. Samuel urged that the time had now arrived when the King Country should be put in the same position as other districts. Sly drinking was the natural result of the people being debarred from the rights and privileges which were owned by people in other parts of New Zealand. Sir Joseph Ward said he would see that the representations of the deputation were carefully considered by his colleagues and himself. The position was a very difficut one. The reason for the Government dealing with the present licenses was that the Government was of opinion that the licenses should not have been issued. He was not reflecting on anybody; it might have been the result of an error of judgment or incorrect interpretation of the law, but the opinion cf the Government wa3 that the licenses ought not to have been issued —that the lav excluded the area from the issue cf licenses. The Government had dealt with the question from the standpoint of what was the intention of Parliament, and the Government's opinion was- that Parliament distinctly intended that licenses should not exist in the district. The duty of the Government therefore, was to see that what Parliament intended should be carried out. He had already informed one deputation that a vote of the rectle should be taken. The requuest that the licenses should continue until after the next general election presented difficulties, because if the Government's opinion was right, that Parliament intended that the area should not include licenses Parliamentonlv should deal with the question.