GOOD TEMPLARY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 426, 9 June 1877, Page 3

GOOD TEMPLARY.

[ The following memorial was adopted at the monster Templar demonstration at I Dunedin on Wednesday:— I "To the Honorable Speaker and Memt bers of the House of Representatives of New Zealand in Parliame.-.f? assembled: "The petition of the undersigned inhabitants of—— respectfully showeth :~ That your petioners believe' that a very large proportion of the vice, crime, lunacy, poverty, and other social evils which exist in this colony are the direct result of the licensed traffic. That this traffic in alcoholic beverages—the results of which so seriousiy affect the social conditions of the people -is one which ought to be brought under control of local self-government, and not be allowed in any locality against the wish of the inhabitants. That under the existing licensing system the traffic in strong drink is established and continued in many localities against the wish of the large majority of the people resident therein.' Tour petitioners therefor pray that your honorable House will be pleased to grant fuller powers of local self-government in regard to the liquor traffic than those presently possessed ; and that to this end your honorable House will be pleased to pass a bill to give to a majority of the inhabitants or ratepayers, as may be deemed expedient, power to vote the carrying on of the liquor traffic in their respective districts, with such machinery as may be necessary and efficient for bringing the same into operation. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray."