LOBBIES AGOG ON LIQUOR BILL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 1

LOBBIES AGOG ON LIQUOR BILL

DEADLOCK REGARDED AS CERTAIN

STATE CONTROL VIEWED AS DEAD-LETTER

(THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, To-day. The prospects of the Licensing Bill are the principal topic of dis- • cussion in the lobbies of the House of Representatives to-day, and the amended Bill, having been received from the Legislative Council for the concurrence of the House soon after mid-day, it is likely that conferences will begin this afternoon. It is generally felt.that the Council will not recede from the position it has taken up, and it is almost certain that there will be no compromise by the Prohibition Party in the House on the bare majority question or the time between the polls. It is possible that a motion may be moved that the House should agree with the Council’s amendments, but

this is pretty well certain to be lost, because the Labour Party will add its 12 votes to those of the Prohibitionists, and in that case the next step will be to appoint managers for the conference.

If the Council does not give way the Prohibitionists and the Labour Party will attempt to force the dropping of the Bill, considering that the present law is preferable to any compromise. They believe that Mr. Coates’s statement that the State Control issue is a dead letter, together with the fact that it has scarcely been given consideration by either House in the recent debates, will be enough to remove it as an effective issue at the next election in any case, and therefore even under the present law next licensing poll will be fought, in effect, on a bare majority basis. It is considered that three conferences between the Houses may be necessary and the fate of the Bill is therefore not likely to be known today. Meanwhile the House has devoted much time to discussing the Prime Minister’s report on the Imperial Conference.