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Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 781, 19 June 1877, Page 2

The Local Option Bill to be brought before the Assembly in its next sitting haa created considerable discussion in Dunedin, owing probably to the fact of Mr Stout's influence, that. . gentleman being an ardent supporter* of the principles of the measure. A large public meeting was held on the 6th inst., at which resolutions . favourable .to the Bill were passed. The 'Guardian,' anticipating the meeting,, -says : — '/The question to be discussed tonight is one of the gravest import, and one on which feelings are very strong. No honest man can deny that drink is the curse of the Colonies; that beyond all comparison with anything else it has produced more destitution, misery, and crime than any — we may add than all other agencies of evil combined. If it- could be utterly banishsd from the land, we do not think there is one human being within our borders but would be better 'and happier for it. .But it cannot be banished from ~the. land. We do nob think it ever will. But the man must be inhuman that cannot lend his sympathy to those who- labour to mitigate the horrors ■ of ' the trade. They may be fanatics; thay may be Utopian; they may say unreasonable things of others, and hope unreasonable things 'from their own efforts. But the sum total of results from their labours has been good. It has made drunkenness in these, days disgraceful, asit was not in the days of our fathers ; and though their efforts may nofc result in all they hope, we have not the least doubt that, they will conduce to the amelioration of the ills under which the whole body politic unquestionably suffers frofti this great social upas tree. "

The principle of 'Local Option,' which is the theme of to-night's discussion, is a principle that enters into our whole political and social system. We shall not anticipate discussion by discussing it; but being virtually the principle of the majority determining what is for the general weal, it is applied in other things without much- question. The practical application of the'principle to our immediate circumstances would be the transference to the whole body of the people of a district of the power! now vested in the Licensing Oourb We, have gX'eat respect Tfor the three gentlemen constituting that ...Court individually and collecjtively. " But we candidly own that if we werli a respectable publican keeping a respectable hotel, we should rather be in the hands of the public thau in the hands of the Court. We would have more confidence that the people would not yield to caprice or a Templar craze; and that a just recognition of rights would be likely to emanate from the great body of the people rather than from any chance three who in the whirligig of aftairs might happen to be selected for the Licensing Bench. Many licensed victuallers in their hostility to a Local Option Bill seem, to think it would inakeihe great body of the people teetotallers, and not only so, but unjust. The great bulk of the people like their little tipple, and will continue so to do. And even if they did not, it is not characteristic of the whole people to lean to anything like confiscation' or robbery. For nothing leSs than this would be the compulsory shutting up of fine and well conducted hotels.. Whether right or wrong, they have grown up under the recognition, license, and protection of the law, and it is not characteristic of political or social progiess, as we know it, to jump suddenly round and annihilate what -society and law have long recognised and fostered. If there were a thousand Local Option Bills, the good and wellconducted hotels may rejoice the more. Onlyagainst the ill-conducted, drinking-dens could society be lashed to arms, and the fewer of these taps the better for society and the better for the trade. . *

tVe do not hesitate to express our belief that the fear of the principle of local . option has been, mainly

fostered by the lowest class of publicans alone, and lias been thought--lessly acquiesced in. by the higher -j.and that a little reflection 'would show these that while a measure embodyin^. suck apriilciple^ ntight do much general good, and in t6tally preventing the introduction of drinking habits into new ; districts niight confer inestimable) special benefits^ Still, as a society is constituted now, a very long time will elapse ere the people of Dunedin, for example, will arise in -.their strength, and re--solve to have no more cakeaand ale." I