DRINK AT DANCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1939, Page 10

DRINK AT DANCES

DRASTIC CLAUSE PASSED BY HOUSE EXTENDED POWERS GIVEN TO POLICE. PUBLIC MORALS AT STAKE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Conduct at public dances was again discussed in the House of Representatives last night when the Statutes Amendment Bill was in the Committee stages. The clause prohibiting the consumption of liquor in public dance halls and in their vicinity had been reported from the Statutes Revision Committee with the recommendation that it be passed without amendment. Mr Coates (Opposition, Kaipara) said the clause gave the police tremendous power to interfere with the, private lives of people. That might be necessary. “We are now giving the police power to enter these premises and practically take charge,” Mr Coates said. “If public morals are at stake I don’t mind.” Mr Coates added that the powers were absolute. The best protection young people could have was to place them on their own feet. There were some wild young spirits who caused some trouble at times. On the other hand, he could not help thinking that by far the great majority lived far above that level. ALARMING EVIDENCE. Mr Richards (Government, Roskill) said he gave his unqualified support to the clause because it was a moral issue. The evidence before the committee was of a very alarming nature and almost unbelievable. The evidence came from all sections'of the community, and without the clause the authorities were impotent to deal with the situation. Supporting the clause, Mr Jull (Opposition, Waipawa) said there was something quite deep behind the problem. Where was parental control? It was a most amazing thing to him that young boys and girls of tender years should conduct themselves in the way they had been. The Minister of Transport, Mr Semple, said he was concerned about girls in their tender teens, and to protect them against the type of criminal that looked for the child the first time it ventured from its home to a dance. These girls were poisoned with stuff that would “stun” a donkey. The public dance hall was no place for “booze” and criminals of that sort. ■ It was the bounden duty of the House to protect these young girls and rid the country of the kind of serpent he had referred to. He emphasised that nothing he had said reflected on the morals of the young women. The police would be cautious in the administration of the law. COMMITTEE IMPRESSED. Mr Bodkin (Opposition, Central Otago), said ,that after hearing the evidence of the Commissioner of Police, the members of the Statutes Revision Committee had come to the opinion that any modification of the clause was unthinkable. “Those members who criticised the clause when it was first brought before the House are not less mindful than the others of the public need;” said Mr Barnard (Government, Napier), “for at first sight it may have seemed to them, as it seemed to me, that in one way the clause went further than was necessary or desirable. After having studied the clause very closely, however, and having heard the Commissioner of Police, I believe that, though it may not be perfect, it will minimize, if it does not remove, this very grave evil. I am sure it will be administered with discretion and wisdom.” Mr Roy (Opposition, Clutha) said he did not retract one word of what he had said when the clause was first introduced, and he was more than ever convinced that the time was overdue for definite and perhaps drastic steps to be taken to overcome the dangers of drinking at dances. The clause was put through without opposition.