A BROKEN TREATY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 462, 22 June 1909, Page 4

A BROKEN TREATY.

GRANTING LIQUOR LICENSES IN THE KING COUNTRY.

A No-license public meeting, in conjuction with the N.Z. Alliance was held in the Choral Hall, Christchurch, last week. His Lordship, Bishop Julius, presided. Speaking in respect to granting licenses in the King Country, his Lordship said : “He believed that it was the bounden duty of the white people of this country to keep the drink out of the King Country. (Loud and continued applause.) He would lay it down as a principle that if white men went to settle on lands in the King Country they must go without the drink. (Hear, hear.) To take drink there would be a wilful crime, a wilful breach of a covenant, and a deliberate wrong to the native race.”

Mr Wesley Spragg (Auckland), moved a lengthy motion expressing the conviction ot the meeting that the action of the Taumarunui licensing Committee in granting four licenses was greatly to be deplored, and was a breach of trust with the natives of the district, as Europeans were only to be allowed to become residents therein on the condition that strong drink was not to be allowed into the territory. The motion also expressed regret that the magisterial chairman exercised both his deliberative and casting votes in favour ol gianting them, thus overriding the elected members of the committee. It was hoped that some means would be found to revoke the decision.

The Rev. F. Bennett (Anglican Minister, Rotorua), seconded the motion. He said he was present to speak on behalf of the Maori people, and to give expression to the cry of a remnant of a great people. The solemn treaty made byThe white race with the King Country natives was being trodden under foot to-day. A legal loophole had been found, through which wholesale licenses had been granted. The moral obligation should have overcome the legal loophole. (Applause.) The King Country had been absolutely closed to the white people until the treaty excluding liquor had been completed, and yet four licenses had been granted. (“Shame!”) It was an absolute shame, and he hoped that the people were not going to stand it. (Applause).

The motion was carried unanimously with applause.

The Rev- Mr Bennett stated th 1 1 the Maori people had no power in connection with the liquor traffic, and he contended that the principle of local option should be extended to them. Special legislation should be introduced to give this right to the native peopleThey desired to close the hotels which had been put down near their villages, as they recognised that there was no factor which had caused their race to degenerate so much as the liquor traffic. He suggested that Maoris should be given a vote on the liquor question, and that where they were in favour of No-license it should be made illegal to sell liquor to a Maori. At the last meeting of the Wanganui Young Men’s No-License Club the following resolution was carried unanimously:—“That this meeting of the Wanganui Young Men’s No-License Club, representing a membership of many hundreds ol young men in the Wanganui electoral district, enters a vigorous protest against the granting of licenses in the King Country, and urges the Government to take immediate steps if necessary to rectify the injustice.”