COMPENSATION TO PUBLICANS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2013, 27 February 1890, Page 3

COMPENSATION TO PUBLICANS.

Speaking on the question of licensing laws recently, the Marquis of Hartington said:—Nobody differs in the opinion that the control of licensing ought to be handed over from a nominated to a representative body. It was proposed by the Government in the Bill they introduced two years ago, «nd therefore they and the Unionists party cannot have any objection in principle to such a transfer, If it was not carried into effect, it was, as Mr Gladstone very well knows, because of the difficulty which arose on the question of compensation to those who may be interested in licenses which were withdrawn by no fault of the holders. I thought then, and I still think, that in any measure with this object it will be necessary to provide in some way, not for excessive, but for just and moderate compensation for the interests involved. Ido not think it is in accordance with the principles of justice Mr Morley has laid down that, say, for any great public improvement, the property, the savings, the product of the industry should be confiscated of persons who have committed no fault, and who have established a lawful industry under the protection and sanction of the law. And I earnestly wish that temperance and Radical reformers who wish, as I do, that this transfer of the licensing power should be made to popular representative bodies, would endeayor to devise some means by which no excessive, but strictly limited, moderate, and just compensation may be afforded to those whose interests are injuriously affected.