“A STRONG AND UNITED GOVERNMENT, BOUND TOGETHER BY WELL UNDERSTOOD PRINCIPLES, AND WITH A DEFINITE OBJECT BEFORE IT.”—Ministers' Journal.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5428, 20 August 1878, Page 3

“A STRONG AND UNITED GOVERNMENT, BOUND TOGETHER BY WELL UNDERSTOOD PRINCIPLES, AND WITH A DEFINITE OBJECT BEFORE IT.”— Ministers' Journal.

(From the Sun.) There will not, after all, be any Licensing Bill placed before Parliament this year, and we need scarcely say that the announcement will he ill received by both the members of the trade and the community at large. As we stated in oar last issue, a Licensing Bill had been drafted daring the recess and notice of its introduction given a few days after the opening of the Assembly by the Minister of Justice, Mr. Sheehan. But unfortunately the conception of the measure had been left to the Attorney-General, Mr Stout—a well-known fanatical Apostle of. Teetotalism and the sworn foe of liberty of trade in matters of fermented liquors. Once before, when that gentleman joined the Ministry, we gave it as our opinion that a political alliance with so blind and prejudiced an advocate of impossible Utopias, would likely prove disadvantageous to any Government endeavoring to effect those reforms which public opinion has so long clamored for. And such has now turned out to be the case. Once more it has teen made palpable that able and experienced in many ways as the present Attorney-General undoubtedly is, his peculiar idiosyncracies and bigoted narrowmindedness upon one single subject, have absolutely, nullified his usefulness as a public man. Of coarse the drafting of any Licensing Amendments has to be placed in the hands of the Attorney-General. When, however, Mr. Sheehan—subsequent to asking leave to introdues the new Bill—cast a glance at its contents, he was thunderstruck, no doubt, at the extraordinary manner in which his Templaristic colleague had treated the subject. The draft Bill was immediately placed before the Cabinet, and the latter at once saw that the new measure as constructed by Mr. Stout was so stringently conceived as to be as unfair to the trade as it would be repugnant to the sense of fairness with which the large majority of the public desires to have such questions treated. Mr. Stout’s colleagues we believe absolutely refused to have anything to do with the Bill. We can authoritatively state that were it to become law nearly every hotelkeeper in the colony would be effectively rained, and that it would be impossible for any honest man possessed of the veriest shadow of self-respect to remain in the trade. Three-fourths of the licensed houses in fact would be closed up and the remainder left in the hands of men such as would probably justify the terribly bad opinion entertained of the members of the trade at large by the Attorney-General, as fully demonstrated by the infamous manner in which he thought proper to draft the measure now shelved. Of course, as Mr. Stout would not listen to reason, but turned a deaf ear to his colleagues' remonstrances, nothing else remained for the Cabinet to do but to drop the Bill altogether. With what painful feeling of astonishment the announcement of this failure on the part of the Government to keep faith with their promises, made during the recess, of thoroughly remodelling licensing matters will be received, scarcely requires any comment. But wo confess, however, to a feeling of astonishment that when Sir George Grey took into his Ministerial bosom so well-known a monomaniac on the temperance question as Mr. Stout, he and his colleagues had not clearly ascertained how Mr. Stout would “ pull ” with the Cabinet on the all-important subject of revising the licensing laws. Shortsightedness, certainly, was there. Mr, Stout evidently places the ventilation of his teetotal hobbies far before any question of State. It is clear to him the advancement of a nation, and the development of its interests and resources, is but a mere trifle when 'compared to what it shall drink. We can only hope that such a fatal blunder as that made by Sir George Grey’s Government when enlisting Mr. Stout in their administrative ranks, will be a warning for Ministers to come. And we feel sure that the members of the trade in New Zealand will appreciate, when the time arrives and opportunities offer, the deliberate insult offered them by Mr. Stout. That Mr. Sheehan and his friends had no other course to pursue than that which they did, is evident. We believe that a short Bill, dealing only with technicalities in reference to the opening of hotels, will now bo introduced by the Minister of Justice. It will not, of course, meet any of the requirements so urgently needed by the trade and the community.