Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1895. The Levin License.

Manawatu Herald, 8 June 1895, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1895. The Levin License.

The Ofcaki Licensing Committee, by a majority of one, agreed to the removal of a publican's license from Manakau to Levin at their annual meeting on Wednesday. By persistent efforts the applicant has succeeded in driving the proverbial " coach and four " through an Act of Parliament;. In spite of the law directing that no new license shall be granted, a new license was granted ; in spite of the Act intimating that 700 of a population was the number for which one licensed house was sufficient, the Committee granted two licenses for even a less popula-

tion ; and in apite of it being directed that no increase in the number of licenses are to be permitted in any Riding in a County* except for a remarkable increase" iti the number of the residents, the increase was made. The Committee have done all that they were able or not, to do, and any difference in opinion must be fought out in the law courts^ The frainera of ll The Aiconolic Liquors Sale Control Act M hava been made to look particularly foolish, if the majority of the Committee happen to be right. Every safeguard which was fondly hoped had been provided to protect the inhabitants has been ruthlessly swept aside. It will become necessary for those who dwell in fancied security outside of the influence of a pnblic house, to bestir themselves to see chat some alteration is made tn the law that the action brought to a successful completion at Lsvin shall not be wrought to their own disadvantage in the near by-and-by. We are by no means advocates for total prohibition, but the ability displayed in frustrating the intentions of Parliament, bring such legislation into contempt, and forces into the minds of the people that prohibition is the only way in which the evils of the liquor trade Ban be successfully surmounted. We should regret that the people should be goaded to such a decision, but when, what was considered, a fair compact had been arrived at, is deliberately broken, the advocates of legislation have the ground taken away from under them.

Some people like to imagine a great fus3 has baen made about a small matfcer> atid that the agitation against the removal has been stirred up by the proprietor of the one hotel afc Lovin. Naturally he resisted competition, as when he secured the property the Act promised a monopoly for three years, and relying upon the law he finds the Act worthless, it the Committee 13 right. But outside of this one person there are the residents in Levin also to be considered, a very large number of whom want no licensed house at all in their midst. Before Parliament arrived at the result that residents should have a right to be consulted prior to a public house being placed in their midst, they had one put there, but directly they were granted power to express an opinion they uttered no uncertain sign, and by an overwhelming number of those who voted, declared for no public house. It certainly makes peculiar reading that the majority of their represen tatives went directly contrary to the known wishes of their constituents, especially the one resident there. If the liquor interest find at the next poll a strong wave of opinion against further licenses being granted, and for a number to be reduced, they will have to hold the applicant and his backers answerable for a good deal of the opposition. The attempt made, which has so far been successful, is of colonial importance, and the facts require production to show the faulty manner our laws are framed, and to what point they will be strained if some one by doing so, can secure some advantage.