STATE CONTROL.
j , (To- tihe Editor.) j Sir,—Your hading article to-day on this topic is no doubt prompted by a j desire for the public welfare; and it j also shows that the present condition of things in the regulation of the i traffic in intoxicants is not satisfactory even to those who do not declare themselves a* advocates of total prohibition. State control is only another phase r,f regulation; and regulation lias been tried for centuries, and still alcoholic drinks produce tile same: old crop 01 crime and folly a« ever. The objection to State control is that in the first place, it makes every one more directly a partner in tie traxiu than he now is l ; and, further, it puts an appearance c! respectability ou the dispensing of intoxicating drinkß tJiat does not now attach to the business; and, further si ill, it can give no guarantee that the liquor sold will not make men drunk. It would need another technical class at the Technical Colitge t>o teaeu the would-be Government officials who are to serve out the drug how to perceive exactly wihen a man or woman or bor' has had enough or too much. Hotelkeepers now, 110 doubt, in some cases v.l-Ji to do that, hut they find it impossible, even with all their •. xperience. 1 quite agree that the Moderates did not show any moderation in their demands from the Premier —they asked just what the liquor traders asked, il they had been really moderate the/ would have said thai the other two parties asked too much, if asking on . the one hand for simple majority, and oil trie other for the retention of the three-fifths majority. Moderates should say, take a lialf-wsy course, and let 53 per cent, carry noI't'cnsc and prohibition. Then they would be moderate. 'However, if ever we are to have (State control of this trade v.c must first clear away the present system; and then whea it is found—as seine say it will ,lie—that the count",* cannot get along without alcoholic drinks, a new plan can be devised for supplying the demand. I should much * like to have a voice :n framing the regulations if it ever came tc that. In the meantime, experience everywhere teaches that Thomas Bracken was quite right when he wrote of liijuor: "Thou art the vilest iiend of all." —I am, etc., GEO. 11. MAUNDER. Friday. Inly 10.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19140713.2.10.2.2
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 1, 13 July 1914, Page 3
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404STATE CONTROL. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 1, 13 July 1914, Page 3
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