The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20. LIQUOR REFORMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 327, 20 January 1909, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20. LIQUOR REFORMS.

it is not essential that the person who' votes prohibition of liquor shall vote | that way because he does not drink aleohol. People "drink" or leave liquor alone for various reasons. Some hale it, some fear it, some love it, ami some hate the system by which it is controlled or uncontrolled. The size of the prohibition vote at any general election is no indication of the number of total abstainers, the number of temperate people, or the number of out and out "no license no liquor" folk. There is !no doubt at all that a very large proportion of people vole no-license as a protest against what they believe is a monopoly that has been ab'e up to now \ to dictate to the public what it shall pay for a common commodity. Whether people who vote prohibition have right on their side when they do so wider the above circumstances the reader will decide. It might be proved that to cheapen liquor would make it more easily available to people, and therefore I lead them into temptation, lint it may i be mentioned that the high price of liquor never stopped it:- lovers from getting it, and that the countries where alcohol is cheapest are the most sober. It is of course undeniable th.il the business people who control tins com- „ moitity are mglitciied at '.lie- .icliaine afi thai is being made in regard i" ine noli nil as the distress of a prohibition let P turer would be if he saw that proliibi M "on was inevitable, and the ios, of hi.I™ position equally so. Self-preservation is the lirst law of nature, and nobody blames a business mail for being n littli lint out at the prospects of linancia ruin, or at least the clipping of his re I proposition the men who sell liquor arc showing an intention of running tin woman is behind it. The rcniova of barmaids is not bad business on tin part of the people who sell liquor, am is certainly a concession to the people who appear to believe (quite unjustly' that a woman who is a barmaid i; "lost." The truth, of course, is lha there are temptations in every line o life. The average barmaid merely use: school and matrimony, and in innumer paid better than iiiiything she would be likely to be offered by other biisinesi really only a question of the best pa} with the barmaid, and no one shoulc blame her. tier life is not all roses.

The iibolitiou of private burs Bounds excellent, but it is to be noticed that in many new hotels this lias already been ell'ec'teil. The difference between the 'public and private burs used to be Unit some drink was cheaper in the former than in the hitter, but in those recentlybuilt hotels in the Dominion where there are no private bars the customer has to pay the same as if there were no publicity. And, anyhow, there never was such a thing as a private bar in reality. No man (that is, a sober man) would ever be refused admission to a bar of any kind. The clause deciding that no youth under twenty years of age shall : iie served in a bar also sounds excellent. : and, as pointed out by the Rev. Thom- : son, secretary of the (Hugo Licensed 1 Victuallers' in an interview 1 published insour telegrams yesterday. 1 could with advantage be raised In twenty-one. The assumption in the next clause that women are weaker in ' regard to drink temptation is peculiar. "No woman lo 1"' supplied with drink , for consumption on the premises unless < she is a boarder.'' This, ot' course, is an , admission that drink is a bad thing for , women but quite a good thing for men i over twenty years of age. One publican ■ (who. by the way. i- a teetotaller himself) has given it as his opinion that the "soc.ia] glass" idea among men would ■ die if the same idea were prevalent ■ among women. '-If men saw droves ,j{ r their wives breasting the bar at eleven j in the morning 'shouting' (he men's mo- [ uey for drinks for other women." ho [ said. "the. 'shouting' habit woidd die a [ <|uick death." Tie may be right. We [ do not know. Anyhow, as far as the I Auckland trade is concerned, the sellers ' don't intend to give the women a chanc. ; In the Kov. Thomson's view, the ! li sing laws should be amended in the ' direction of adding an option in favor ; either of State or municipal control, lie ; said he prefers municipal control, giving ; reasonable compensation bv arbitration. j We have before expressed the view that j the "reduction" issue should lie eliminal- :, ed and a State control issue substituted. i Mr. Thomson spoke of exorbitant rents i which, some hotelkeepers have to pa v. i These exhoiTu'taut rales are the natural < result of the opcrati'o7l of the present I licensing laws. Since the laws have been ' in operation an immense monopoly has ' been created. "Where a man fifteen ' years ago could "get into" an hotel for ' -CSOO he now has to pay £500(1. We recall a Taranaki case.' Several years ago the rent of a certain country hotel was fixed at C 5 per week. There was little or no goodwill attached to it. That house has since passed through a number of hands, until now the goodwill works out. at t'2o a week, in addition .to the CS rental! Whilst the present ) licensing laws stand these exhorbitaiit and fictitious prices will obtain and the monopoly continue and grow. The closing of licensed houses in prohibition districts really only adds to the goodwill of the hotels in the immediate neighborhood and docs not nialcrially affect the monopoly. A system of State-controlled licensed houses, run on the same bus!-

lii'ss lines as nur present Departments of 51a1... will. Hi,, payment ..r reasonable compcnsnlion (iliTivnlilo from the piolils i,f (li,. workinu'ofllicSlale.eonlrollcd houses) would, we an- disposed lo Ihin,:. prove n material ii.lviuit'.'iiii.iil .in our present unsatisfactory, and. in some respects, iiiifair system, nml <;o a lung way towards solvinir lII.' liipißr |H'olill-iii. U'c liopi- oiu- legislators will give Hie ma Iter llii.ir eurlv consideration nml lake steps to ~lTnicl the ]iulili.. an opporInnilv of registering their views on Slate-controlled licensed houses. Turninjr lo (lie Auckland proposals, it is {tralif.yin<{ to police that the Trade there are Inking ll». lesson they are from tin heavy line recently imposed liy the local vo(,crsand iiinki'iijr an honest attempt In put their houses in order, a course which nielli Willi advantage lie followed | by tin- Trade throughout the Dominion.