BRITISH LICENSING BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 288, 30 November 1908, Page 2

BRITISH LICENSING BILL.

THE " CONFISCATORY " PROPOSALS London, November 27. I The Primate and the Earl of Halsbury supported the suggestion made by Lord Saint Alwin yesterday in reference to the Licensing Rill. Lord Rose- t berry asked both parties to co-operate in carrying the suggestion into eli'ect. j REJECTED IIY THE HOUSE OF ' LORDS. OVERWHELMING MAJORITY. Received 2!), 8 p.m. . London, November 21), The Licensing Hill was rejected by the House of Ivords by 272 to UU. * The majority was exclusively Unionist. ! The minority included two Arrfibisbops, eleven Bisliops, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Lords Carlisle, Delaware, Ester, Falmouth, Lytton, Colham, Miluer, Ritchie, and nine other Unionists. A NEW MEASURE.

EMBODYING THE TEMPERANCE PROPOSALS. Received 21), 8 p.m. London, November 21). The Bishop of London (Dr. Ingram) states that the Archbishop of Canterbury i» willing, if the Government will permit him, to introduce a new licensing measure embodying the temperance proposals of the lost Bill. During a debate in the House of Lords Lord St. Aldwj'n suggested that the Government or the Bishop of London should introduce a new Bill, embodying thirty clauses, for promoting temperance. He said he was eonlldcnt the Lords would pass such a Bill.' "A WRONG OVER RIGHT." A THREAT TO THE TRADE. HIGHER LICENSE FEES. " Received 2!), 8 p.m. London, November 29. Ijoi-iI Lorebinn, Lord High Chancellor und a member of the Cabinet, while'admitting that the Government's Bill was dead, declined it was a victory for the trade over the community, a wrong over right. Nevertheless; the time had come when the State would resume the uower to review licenses 'unfettered by any vested interest.

"Evi'ii if the Bill be rejected, we are by no means at the end of our resources*" Mr. Lloyd-George made this declaration at a Wesleyan meeting at Criecietli just before the last mail left, nnd lidded that when the Confiscation Bill was presented to the House of Lords it would have tlie greatest opportunity ever offered to it of "rising to its. great pretensions as an independent institution far removed from the passions and interests which swayed the multitude." "I am assured," he said, "that the Archbishop of, Canterbury and the majority of the Bishops will probably record their votes in the House of Lords for the second reading oi the Bill, and if, notwithstanding that fact, it is thrown out with the ap;:v'.'nt assent of the English electorate it means that on a question affecting the highest interest of the community the interests of the liquor traffic carry greater weight with the English electorate than the combined appeals of those who are responsible for the moral and spiritual welfare of the men and women of the land.

"This is the sort of question where the House of Lords may really show what claims it has to be an assembly which is free to consider the real interests of the community without being swayed by the lower passions of the, multitude.

"Experience, however, has taught us that if the House of liOids sees any party advantage cither in passing or rejecting a measure, no consideration of its merits or of its effect on the wellbeing of the community will stand between it and the interests of the party of which it is purely a branch organisation."

Mr. Lloyd-George's threat that the "Government is not fit the end of its resources" can only mean that if the Confiscation Hill is rejected by the House of Lords, the Chancellor in his next Budget will largely increase the duty on licenses —a contingency that has been frequently hinted at by those in close touch with the Government.