Compensating Publican's

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 18 July 1890, Page 2

Compensating Publican's

■% In an interview with a Pall Mull Gazette reporter. Mr "W. S. Caine M. P. expl lined, his objections to the proposed Government scheme : — My primary objection to the- whole scheme is that it is unjust to the community as a whole to apply the proceeds of this particu'ar tax on drink to the purpose of pensioning the pub'ican ; the revenue derived from the taxation of liquor is just as much the property of the country nt large as the revenue derived from the taxation of tea, housei, land, or incomes"

" You are strongly as ever against the principle of compensation ?" "Oh, yes The public is so apt to forget that I ewers and publicans are daily in the enjoyment of compensation in the shape of the extra i-ecotflppnse resulting from the exercise of the privilege that has been confer. -a. upon them by the State. The U.,iuess of the publican, you must not forget, is extreme.y profitable, especially as compared, say, witl.. his neighbour the grocer or the boot dealer. The difference between the cost 01 a glass of beer taketf over the counter cf a tavern an i the C^st of a glass drawn from the sinaiJ casks supplied to private houses is as between l^d, and £d. Where a public-house is doing business to the extent of £800 a year, the profit will run to about £400. lake the case of Sir Andrew Walker : I can recall him when he was quite in a small way of business, thirty years ago ; since then, under the privilege (not the right) extended to him by the state, hehas built upabusiness which sold the other day for three million pounds sterling, and which he stated in th" prospectus had brought him in an annual profit of £200,000 for some years past Yet forsooth if the Sta'e determines to withdraw the privilege which it alone conferred, it will have, according to the princip'e of the bill issued on Friday afternoon, to pay a million and a half additional as compensation for extinguishing the licenses attaching to his 250 houses ! Don't you think that he has had quite ample compensation already ? Then you must know that we Temperance Keformeis never forget that the courts have decided, and the counsel to the Licensed Victuallers Association has admitted, that no vested interest exists in a license, and that the refusal of a license is entirely within the discretion of the magistrates (subject to appeal). The Darwin case has been confirmed and greatly strengthened by the decision id Sharpe v Wakefield. Notwithstand* ing this fact, I hav« no hesitation in declaring — despite the anger of Mr Ritchie — the Government propose to endow the Liquor Trade with iiom two hundred to two hundred and fifty million pounds sterling. Really this bill of the Govornment if passed can have no other effect. That is to say, the owner of every public house in the country is to be put down as a creiitor of the state to the average amonnt of at least £2,000; and so real will be this credit that I have no doubt he wiil be able to borrow money and will borrow money, on the strength of it. What has the man done, you may well ask, that he should be bo exceptionally and so handsomely treated ? "