SIR W. FOX ON THE LICENSING ACT.

Patea Mail, 3 July 1882, Page 3

SIR W. FOX ON THE LICENSING ACT.

At a farewell address to the members of the Good Templar Lodge in New Plymouth, Sir William Fox said: The recent Licensing Act, from which so much had been anticipated, he did not at all consider a failure, as many did. He felt rather discouraged at first, but was now convinced that any measure that could cause so much stir amongst the upholders of the liquor interest, and which was seriously felt by them to be a source of danger, must inevitably prove a real benefit to the public ; for in the constant warfare between these two great opposing powers, whenever in the balancing some influence or strength was detracted from one, it was not lost, but given to the other, and as in all battles of wrong against right, when the good in humanity could be brought to bear upon the strife, right must conquer. The liquor traffickers were evidently in what is commonly called an immense“funk” at the existence of the new Act, and were gathering together and passing resolutions to get it repealed or so altered as to be a nullity. He did not think they would succeed. He did not think the Government was so weak as to be afraid of its own gun. It was urged by liquor traffickers and their friends that nobody had taken any interest in the late elections. Well, whoever expected that the Act was going to sweep away all the public-houses in a day ? It had come into operation so quickly after passing, that not one in a, thousand had read it or realised the immense powers it put into their hands. But already they were feeling it, and it would not be long before they showed their interest in it and exercised the power given.

Was it ever heard that because an important Act affecting a . social reform did not do all it intended to in six months, that therefore it was to be at once repealed ? The anxiety of the traffic to get rid of it showed that it was no nullity, but it was doing at least some of the work it was intended to do. It was something to have started a little of the machinery, which would be helpful in the great harvest when the crop was ready. • • . • The people

had yet to learn that they were the publican’s masters and not he theirs. 'At present the publican on licensing day came boldly before the Licensing Committee as if he were a plaintiff in a Court of Law, and the public a defendant, and the Committee were Supreme Court Judges to decide between them. This was all a mistake. The publican was a suppliant for a share in a monopoly given to him as matter of grace and favor—only granted by about 1 in every 200 persons. .