LICENSING LEGISLATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3660, 2 July 1927, Page 3

LICENSING LEGISLATION.

TO COME BEFORE HOUSE

It was stated by the Minister of Health (Hon. J. A. Young) during the Address-in-Reply debate, that licensing legislation would be introduced, and as hitherto, would not be a party matter. There would be clauses in the Bill which all the members of the Government might not agree with, but they would be treated on their merits, and the question would be left to the good judgment of the House. Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central): Has Cabinet agreed on the form of the Bill?

The Minister: Cabinet has agreed on the Bill, but that does not commit the Government to all that is in the Bill. The Leader of the Nationalist Party (Mr. G. W. Forbes) said that the Licensing Bill should reflect the views of the majority of the Cabinet on the question, but the standpoint of the Prime Minister could not be divined from his replies to the recent deputations. The Prime Minister had declared that the last Bill he brought down had been wanted by nobody, and it must therefore have been a very crude effort. (Laughter). The Bill had evidently, had a very stormy passage in-the caucus, as it had to be dropped.

The Minister of Education (Hon. R. A. Wright) said that when public opinion was so evenly divided — 50-50 —in was quite impossible for any Prime Minister to take up one side or the other. If he did, he would never last or his Government either.