N.Z. ALLIANCE ANNUAL MEETING

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 8, 1 September 1947, Page 9

N.Z. ALLIANCE ANNUAL MEETING

It was a very earnest and anxious gathering of men and women who assembled in the Taranaki Street Methodist premises on July 24th. Matters of extreme urgency were on the agenda, and the general feeling was that in temperance history now in the making a crisij was impending. It is not possible here to give anything like a full account M all that took place, or even of all that came under discussion, but as W.C.T.LI. members, we should know something about those matters on which we ourselves may have to express an opinion.* Of course, the Masterton Bill, now before the House, was one of the most outstandingly important subjects. Those who have read the July number of “The Vanguard” will see how terribly retrograde are the provisions of the Bill. Restaurant drinking, the freedom to have an unlimited number of licences, and the permitting of the employment of barmaids are all provided for; and each of these is a dire threat to all that we stand for. Mr. Milners’ clear summing up of the whole position lias been sent, we believe, to every Member of Parliament, and we advise all our members to obtain and read carefully the statement ir. the Vanguard. Copies can be had from the N.Z.A. Headquarters, Box 1079, Wellington. Trust Control

The terrible “cleft stick' in which the temperance party finds itself, the necessity for making a decision as to the lesser evil of two evil thing?, for this it is, occupied hours of ttu conference. Surely, never have v e been faced with so difficult a problei i. Every effort to arrive at the point o ! making a statement which would not appear to imply agreement with the principle that ownership in some form was favoured by the conference, failed. Again and again it seemed as though some finality were being reached, but in the end, it was deferred for six months, during which time- area and electorate committees would he asked to consider the question and make their decisions known to the superintendent, Mr. Milner. The evils of Private Ownership as against those of Trust Control seemed on the whole to be regarded as the greater. “Trust Control” is still something of a nebulous term, pending legislation on the whole thing. With certain qualifications suggested by the Alliance, it would he w’idely different from that which has functioned in Invercargill. We hope to give some information on the point in our next issue. Since the conference, we understand that the Hon. Minister of Justice has been waited upon by a deputation appointed by the conference, and that he has met the members thereof in a friendly spirit. Certain matters were admitted by him to be against the volume of expressed jHiblic opinion, and for that reason would not be pressed by him. Chief among these was restaurant drinking.