THE BEER TAX.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5470, 8 October 1878, Page 2

THE BEER TAX.

TO THE EDITOR OK Tilr. fsE o' la '.LAND TIMES. Sir, —I observe that some of the newspapers have been attacking me for voting against the Beer Tax Bill, aud charging mo with having in so doing deserted my principles as a liquor law reformer. They have not, however, the candor to state the reason I gave for my action, and I shall be obliged if you will allow me to repeat it in your columns. My reason was that I consider the Government is already far too closely allied with the liquor traffic, and too dependent upon it. It already derives nearly half a million sterling of revenue from it, which is no doubt a principal cause of its unwillingness to initiate any legislation which might tend to lessen the consumption of strong drink. To have aduei another £30,000 or £40,000 a year to the revenue derived from this source would have had the effect of strengthening to that extent the warm sympathy which the Government already feels for the brewer aud publican, and to make it all the less likely that the efforts of the temperance party in the Legislature should prove efficient to carry the reforms they aim at. On the other hand,-sir, allow me to inquire of my critics what the temperance cause would have gained by my voting for the imposition of tbifc duty of 3d. a gallon on beer ? It would not have checked in the smallest degree the power of the brewer .and publican to manufacture and sell beer. The Colonial Treasurer has distinctly declared that the.tax would not have hurt them ; that it is an axiom of political economy that all taxes are paid by the consumer ; that is, in this case, the beer drinker. Wei! then let us see whether it would have made him drink less. Threepence a gallon would, I believe, come to something less than a farthing a glass. With wages varying from ss, to 15s. a day, would any beerdrinking laborer or mechanic drink a single thimbleful less because it would cost him little more than half a farthing a glass in excess of its previous price ? The tax would neither have loosened the manufacture nor consumption of beer by the smallest conceivable amount. Why then wa* it incumbent on me to have voted for if? I have no faith whatever in any legislative remedy but one for the evils of the drinking habits of the day, aud that one I have always consistently and persistently advocated. It is to give the people themselves the power of putting temptation out of their reach by closing the door of the public-house. The Legislature of New Zealand has several times affirmed this principle, aud it stands now on the Statute Book. What remains to be done is to add to this recognition of the popular right the necesnary, machinery for collecting the people's votes. For the last eight or ten mouths the Government has been fl tfccerz -g the temperance party that they wore going to take the matter in hand, and bring in a Bill which would finally settle the who‘e question. Dulled into inaction by Mr. Sheehan's promises, they have themselves abstained from doing anything, aud aie now at the last moment “ sold,” (no other other word will describe the transaction), by the withdrawal, of the Licensing Bill just on the point of its second reading, “doid” also they were by the majority of the Government (all but one) voting against or absenting themselves on the closing clauses of the Electoral Bill; aud “ sold” ouce again by the withdrawal of the Bribery Bill, which contained good clauses in the direction of suppressing corruption of electors by strong drink. Well might my friend Mr. Bauuders recommend that all Government Bills for the future should bo brought in with the heading “ Introduced by permission of the licensed victuallers, 11 I may add in conclusion that when the Beer Tax Bill was announced several weeks ago, I corresponded about,it with several of the loading men in the temperance movement in various parts of the colony, some of them very staunch political supporters of the Government. With the exception of one G ood Templars' lodge their 'dvice iu every case was to vote against the Bill, and that for precisely the same reason as I have given above, aud gave in the House, that by making the Government more depen-. dent on the liquor traffic It would strengthen the position of the liquor traffic and weaken that of the liquor law reformers.—l am, &c., William Fox.