The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1911. LIQUOR IN BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 23 November 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1911. LIQUOR IN BRITAIN.

It is likely that the mere choosing of a new Parliament next month will be a secondary consideration to the decision of the people in regard to liquor licenses in New Zealand. One is apt to believe that reform of the liquor and diminution of licenses is confined to the United States and those new countries where experiments are rife. Britain says less about liquor reform than some countries, but during the past five years there has been a quiet aggression that has effected a valuable purpose. The Licensing Act of 1904 was -the work of Mr. Balfour, and while it benefited the 'liquor trade (by transforming the annual tenure of a license into permanent ownership) it quickened the reduction of licenses. The Act established the principle of compensation for redundant licenses whose extinction was ordered, and gave power to levy on all licenses in a licensing district for the cash to compensate those who had lost their licenses. A curious position has arisen as various local licensing bodies have 'not taken advantage of the powers given them by the Act of levying a maximum charge on publicans for compensation of their eradicated brothers, so that the reduction of licenses depends entirely on the amount of cash available for compensation. Although in Britain no machinery is available for 'the total abolition of the liquor traffic, the reduction of licenses is being undertaken, and the control of the business, especially by examination and analyses of liquors, is stringent. As we know, this does not exist in Xew Zealand, and is a weakness. In six years in England and Wales !)31(i licenses were recommended by the licensing benches for suppression, and of these 0903 were accepted by compensation authorities for recusal. The total number of licensees compensated for loss of licenses was '. ti337, and it will be seen how the Act operates when it is shown that hotel owners in possession of licenses paid in six years a total of over six million pounds in compensation to those whose licenses were lost. In most cases the reasons given for the abolition of licenses was that there was no need for them. The average amount paid in the case of each extinguished licenses was .€B7B. It has, of course, happened that each license eradicated has made existing licenses more valuable. The extent of the business is shown by the fact that in 1904 there were 99,929 licenses current in England and AVales, or one drinking house for every 330 per-

=«P<. Vn-v thero fi-r. 01.0(1(1 l!,.p„=c=--one for every 400 All classes of the British community believe that the present number of licensed houses is far too great and that the compensation authorities are showing a disposition to

''go slow," because of the "injustice - ' of so heavily taxing existing licenses. The Act gives the authorities a free hand in the levying of a compensation rate, and it is held by many authorities that such a rate ought to be made compulsory, as the reduction of licenses is a national need. The question of adequately dealing with enormous interests is most difficult, and the British problem, compared with our own, is stupendous.

GERMANY'S WAR SCARE. Strange scenes were witnessed in Germany in the course of the Moroccan crisis. ' The financial authorities of the country appear to have made up their minds that an outbreak of war with France would bring about the dislocation of business and a disastrous depreciation of securities, and their concern was intensified when French capital began to move towards Paris. W'hen the Bourse opened one morning in tire middle of September selling orders poured in from all parts of Germany and a panic was threatened. Four prominent financiers dashed off to the Foreign Office and returnd at headlong speed with an official announcement that the Moroccan trouble would be ended within three days, but naturally many brokers were inclined to believe that the Government was merely assuming an air of confidence for the occasion. The correctness of their estimate was proved, by Subsequent events. On the same day Herr Bebel, the Socialist leader, complained that the anxiety of tne State officials Was causing them to persecute him. A telegram addressed to 'him by the secretary of the International Bureau at ' Brussels had been detained by the post office and he himself had been dogged by detectives all the way from Jena to Switzerland. The officers had made desperate efforts to find where he was going and what business was engaging his attention. "It is a pity they waste money like that," said Herr Bebel. "I would gladly have told tMm mys«lf if they had asked me civilly at Jena." Apparently the pollen wanted to know whether the Socialists would arrange a general strike in the event of an outbreak of war. The German nation suffered a considerable financial lost as a result of the "scare," and no doubt was as relieved as were the other nations when the diplomatists reached an agreement.