RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 506, 5 October 1912, Page 5

RANDOM REMARKS.

By Onlooker,

Notwithstanding that the desirableness of effecting a change in the existing conditions relating to the liquor traffic in the district has been affirmed with a frequency which savours of monotony, the only suggestion for public discussion on the matter has come from the Borough Council. There is a quaintnesa in the suggestion that the subject should be placed before the meeting called in connection with the loan proposals, which will appeal to many. Presumably the financial matters will first be discussed, and the transition from loan to liquor should be a welcome relief. There may be some philanthropic souls at the meeting whose fears will lead them to support the loan in the hope that by surrounding the citizens with all the modern comforts of civilisation, the yearning for alcoholic luxuries will be minimised. To the unbiassed observer it certainly savours of brutality to deny our suburban residents a little drop of comfort amid their present surroundings.

To attack the subject with a seriousness and gravity befitting the occasion however, it is to be hoped the liquor question will be discussed entirely from the standpoint of the public good. It should be remembered that the merits of prohibition, of license or no license do nnt enter into the question of the liquor traffic in the district. The conditions which prevail have upgrown from circumstances over which the present inhabitants have had no control. The people have been given no opportunity of proclaiming whether they approved or disapproved of existing conditions. It is inconceivable that any fair minded person will hold that the people should not be given this privilege, which is' unreservedlly accorded to the rest of the Dominion. Even the Maoris in other localities are given the right to vote on the question of whether liquor will be excluded from their kaingas. Some years ago when the subject was publicly discussed at Te Kuiti the extraordinary argument was used that the people who came to settle in the district j knew the conditions which existed and had no right to endeavour to alter them. The ingenuous person capable of conceiving and giving utterance to such argument is calculated to work incalculable harm to any cause which he may have at heart.

World progress has only been achieved by people deciding to alter conditions which may have been entirely suitable for preceding generations. There are many conditions which we in the King Country are striving to alter. Among the most strenuous advocates of these alterations are doubtless some who are opposed to an alteration of conditions governing the liquor traffic. The whole question.resolves itself into the cardinal principal of liberty the liberty enjoyed by the remainder of the Dominion. Few thoughtful people regard the present state of the traffic with favourable eyes, and it is obvious that alteration can only be effected by strenuous action. Moreover, alteration means either despotic action by the Government, or action decided upon by the people most affected, after the Government has referred the matter to them in the same manner as is customary in other districts.