A JUDICIOUS WITHDRAWAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2658, 13 November 1909, Page 3

A JUDICIOUS WITHDRAWAL.

Mr Laurenson was well advised in withdrawing Tiis Licensing Act Amend - ment Bill, lie has taken this course alter consultation with other leading men associated with the New Zealand Alliance, whose proposals the Bill embodied. When it is remembered that the proposed measure must have been drafted some time before the recent interview with the Premier, it will be apparent that the step now taken is net in the nature of a retreat. The Government is now pledged to introduce a Bill which not only embodies the most important demand of - the party, but one which is generally recognised as urgently necessary to repair a great wrong and make amends as far as pos : siblo for a broken compact with the Maori people—the abolition of these licenses which have been granted on various pretexts in native districts. Also, certain evasions cf the spirit, though not oi' the letter, of the law are to be prohibited, such as the ‘'locker'’ system and the establishment of “depots” adjacent to the boundaries ci no-license districts. There should be. no difficulty, in view of the attitude of the public and Parliament on the general question, in carrying these provisions in a Government Bill. Mr Laurenson’s Bill, on the other hand, might never have reached a stage in which it could have been debated T It opened wider questions. and the Administration, m the limited time at its disposal, might have shrunk from opening the floodgates of interminable discussion. If the Premier’s pledges are fulfilled, the temperance party will have cause to be well pleased with the legislator work of 1909, and the cause is not likely to suffer in the end by the indefinite uostpoiiement of such proposals as Dominion Option and the Bare Majority .—Wellington ‘ ‘Post.’ ’