THE LICENSING QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 176, 24 January 1914, Page 6

THE LICENSING QUESTION.

To tiu> Kdilor. ' Sir,-Tke extract from the Maslerloir, .W in Mjur issue of Thursday 'l'"'- "" l V correctly presinl tin; attitinl ' the] , Xo-licensc Party to the proposed reduction of tin; majority n quired to j' varrv no-license or national prohibition , from (H) p. r > .'lit- to "m per cent. The j onrtv stands I'm' il'i' liis'j'>•■'* >" '" , each' of llir issues, with liio same lov restoration of license- where there is now ' no-license. It liinv hi! in thi' memory ■■ of vour readers that .Mr. .Malcolm's Itill ' of lill'J proviili'il for the reduction to .'>.") 1 j.i-i- (Tilt, in hoth issues, mill I hut many ' iiu-nil.iTs voli'.l against it on the pli'a \ thllt illl'V Were pledged not to P'dllCO I In- majority required for lo.nl no licrn-c. >,vlii!.-l. liny wi'iv not h> |>U-.1-cil on tin- milional issue. This being the case, tlii! Xo-licrn-.i I'ariy thought that half a loaf was better than no bread, ami asked in 1!!!:! for what .Mr. Ma-<cy says lie will snlnnit to the House at. the ('online; se.-sion -a propo-al to reduce mi the national issue only. The Xew Zealand elector to-day must lie woefully-1 was fj«iiuir to s;iv wilfully—blind if he thinks tliaf prohibit ioni-.ts fear the popular vote on any issue—: local no-license, national prohibition or restoration. It is true thai if .">."> per cent., or the simple majority, had been ' the law of the bind in I'.lll several of the present no-license districts would have carried restoration, bill, on the other linnd. many more would have gone "dry"; as a matter of fact, had it then been a simple majority we should now have :l-t no license districts instead of only I'2 as at present. On the plea for a vote on Slate control much nielli he said why il should not be taken. Jt is argued thai, the priI vate profit on the sale of liquor is the evil we ought to eliminate: hut it was j not the profit that caused Ihe trouble at Waitara. as reported in Hie same tissue of your paper: it was the intoxicating quality in the drink those Maoris had taken. ' Alcoholic drinks or nonalcoholic drinks is a clear-nil issue to put to the vote. Then they can carefully consider whether the intoxicating drink is a benefit or an injury; but when it comes to the profit'question it is merely a form of regulation, and regulation has been trftd without success for hundreds of years until law-makers, as well as enthusiastic reformers, began to see Hint the harm was in the 'drink consumed. There is one very I important fact to be considered when I trying to find out the merits or dc- ] merits of any such a way of selling intoxicating liquor as is proposed in State control, of which the great virtue is supposed to be that private profit is got rid of, and that is the experience of Norway and Sweden where they have fried many ways of regulating the drink, from free distillation and free sale up to various lion-prolil, systems; and after all their experience we see that their Parliament is seriously dealing with the simple question of prohibition. There are many in our land who have some faitb in Stale control, but most of I hem say that they will try prohibition lirM, and if that is a failure then the other can be tried also. It is on every ground most important not to mix the issues set before the ' country, hence the temperance rel'omi- - crs say, '•(.live prohibition a trial,'' and if that docs not answer some new plan may he adopted.—l am, etc., a.fi.M