LICENSING BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10142, 12 November 1910, Page 5

LICENSING BILL.

FURTHER DISOUSSEO IN THE HOUSE.

POLL IN KING COUNTRY REJECTED.

(By Tele^rapn—Press Association.'; WELLINGTON, Last Night.

The Licensing Bill was further discussed in Committee .if the House of Representaives this afternoon. Sub-section 1 of Clause 34, forbid-' ding the use of premises as a place of resort for the consumption of liquor was amended on the motion of Sir Joseph Ward, by making the Clause apply only to No-license districts.

Mr Jennings moved to add a new "lause, providing that Uatise 27 of the Bill, which provides tor licensing polls beingtaken periodically after the determination to restore licenses, shall only apply until the electors residing in the Rohepotae shall have declared themselves in favour of licenses being granted in that district. A sub-clause provided for a poll being taken on the question whether or not licenses shall be granted, a three-fifths majority to decide the issue.

Messrs Taylor, Christchurcb, and Poole opposed tbe clause, as it would interfere with the compact entered into by the Maoris and Europeans that the King Country should be kept clear of the liquor traffic. Sir Joseph Ward said it waj not right, in view of the large Native population in the King Country, that the Bill should apply to that district at the present time. On division, the clause was rejected by 5K votes to 13. Mr Te Kangihiroa moved to add a new clause providing'that the Governor may, from time to time, on the recommendation oE the Maori Councils of any district under the Maori Councils Act, 1900, proclaim such district as a district in which a poll may be taken to decide whether liquor shall be supplied to Natives in that district.

The clause was agreed to on the voices.

On the motion of Sir Joseph Ward, a proviso was added to • lause 42, providing that brewers' depots shall not he established within live mile 3 of a No-licenso district excepting brewers and ordinary bottling warehouses established prior to the ing of No-license, from the operation of the clause.

A number of consequential amendments were made in the Schedules containing issues on which the polls are to be taken.

MR G. B. NICHOLLS INTERVIEWED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Last Night. Interviewed by a Star reporter, Mr G. B. Nicholls, Provincial Organiser of the No-license Party, who assisted the cause in the recent Sydney campaign, said that to hia mind the acceptance of the retention of the three-fifths majority as a price of the separation of ballot papers, as had evidently been done, wss entirely a loss to the No-license cause He recognised, however, that this was largely a matter for speculation, and even the Party itself was divided on the point. The prohibition of young men under 21 years of age was undoubtedly a step in the No-license direction, and the abolition of bottle licenses was a matter of great importance to Dunedin. Personally he was glad. The deletion of the reduction vote was not regretted, because it was never popular, and had been growing less popular every poll. The placing of the Dominion vote on the Statute Book is a great advance, for the No-license party will be forced now by the exigencies of the position to make an effort to completely educate the people on the utter uselessness of alcoholic liquors. New Zealand is undoubtedly the most favourably 'situated country in the world to ay the experiment of absolute Dominion prohibition. If carried, and made a success of, it would mean much to the Empire. There was nothing impossible in obtaining the necessary three-fifths majority for Dominion Prohibition in New Zealand. Mr Nicholls anticipates that the party is entering on the fight with a good heart,and is certa : n, however, that it shall not be content to rest on the present basis, and it may almost be taken for granted that the bare majority at local and Dominion polls will be a keen issue at the next political tight.