NORWAY'S LIQUOR LAWS.

Shannon News, 18 January 1927, Page 4

NORWAY'S LIQUOR LAWS.

PERMITS TO DEINK ISSUED ONLY TO REPUTABLE MEN. Melbourne, December 2. A recent cable stated that in Nor- ' way a committee, reporting on the resuit of a prohibition plebiscite, recommended the issue of cards to persons over 21 years of age,-desiring to buy liquor, and that persons breaking the liquor laws or showing themselves to be irresponsible, should be debarred from receiving the cards. • An experienced police sergeant, stationed in an outlying Melbourne suburb, said to-day that such a system would be an effectual means of controlling, habitual drunkards, temperamental brawlers, and pushes. In the cities and urban districts of Norway, the trade in spirits has been conducted since 1866 under the Gothenberg system, so called from the Swedish city where it was first established in 1851. A monopoly of a city and its district is given to a " disinterested" company, composed of men of high standing, approved by the Government, and possessing ample capital. Of the net profits, the company retains one-fifth, or enough to pay interest of about 5 per cent, on their capital. The Government takes the rest. But licenses for the sale of beer and .. wines can be.obtained almost as easily as can tobacco licenses in Australia. The plebiscite mentioned in the cable was taken at the beginning of November. It . showed a majority against prohibition, and also a majority against increasing the alcoholic strength of spirits above 20 per cent., which is about half the strength of ordinary whisky. Norway appears, then, to be satisfied \_ with her 60 years' experience of the /.'. . Gothenberg system, but she has two problems. -; . First, there has been a marked tendency in wine bars to introduce stronger wines, fortified with spirits. •: : ' In the second place, although Norway's cities are not large, their proportion of seafaring folk is high, and their visiting population of mariners from the Seven Seas is exceptional, regarded in proportion to the size of the cities.themselves. Consequently cases of drunkenness are more numerous than in British seaports, and many times more than in Britain generally. *"'; • It is evidently to stop the repetition of offences by habitual drunkards that the permit system is designed. Black-Listing Drunkards. Victoria has already a law under ,/:. which any relative of a drunkard who ;- -■ ■' can prove to a magistrate that the victim is destroying the happiness of his 'y. . home, impoverishing himself, or under- ' '-. mining his health, can have him V*- v "black-listed." ;'. * A prohibition order is made, forr'~'~' bidding all publicans in the "icensiug {:. district in which the erring one lives, or I j ■ " district to which he is likely to xe|?C sort, to serve him with liquor. The |;.., ; - police deliver a copy of the order to !;£/, each publican concerned, and to diss>>-" obey the order is a punishable offence. j@r, l But in a city like Melbourne, where zirizl ft. man could visit a new hotel, where he .would be a stranger, every day for p(f-- three years, and never visit any one gsT' .twice, a prohibition order is manifestly "useless. B|U Why Not a White List? fc ' ' How simple it would be, though, if Pp' '■. every man carried a white metal badge, pV.\ Jik« a railway season ticket. Entering t/''.' • bar or hotel lounge, he would "flash" it the barman or waiter, just as he £'""" "' "' -

now shows a season ticket at the barrier. If a" man would not or could not show it he would not be served. If he committed any offence, or made himself a habitual nuisance, either by drinking or in any other way, his badge would be taken from him. Anyone under 18 years could not obtain a permit. Under the present law of this State, cases are not unknown in which men have applied to the courts for prohibition orders against . themselves —a rather painful procedure in "signing the pledge," and therefore leaving little doubt as to the applicant *s sincerity. » How much more convenient would it be just to call on the sergeant at the local watch-house and hand in the allimportant badge!