P.rrieir of Reritirs, 119/06. 



Victorian Government Licensing Bill. 



249 



namely. A, Continuance ; B, Reduction ; and C, 

 No-License. The following is the 



FORM OF BALLOT PAPER. 



Licensing Act, 1906. 

 LOCAL OPTION VOTE. 



Indicate your vote by making a cross in the square 

 opposite llie resolution for which you vote. 



The roll used will be the Legislative Assembly 

 roll. The district will be a Legislative Assembly 

 electf>rate. Each elector will be able to vote for one 

 resolution only, but votes for No-License if that be 

 not carried will be added to the votes for Reduc- 

 tion. A simple majirity will carry either Continu- 

 ance or Reduction, but a three-fifths majority of the 

 votes recorded will be needed to carry No-license, 

 and a vote of at least 30 per cent, of the electors 

 on the roll. If No-license be carried in a district, 

 at the following election Resolution D, meaning 

 RestoraFion, would be submitted, and to carry that 

 would require the three-fifths majority, and the 30 

 per cent. vote. In the event of either Reduction 

 or No-License being carried licenses would be di- 

 vided into classes, according to convictions recorded 

 against their holders. Those on the blackest list 

 would then have a lease of life of from six to twelve 

 months ; those next in order of demerit would have 

 from a year's to two years' grace, • and the balance 

 would have a period of three vears allowed. In giving 

 effect to a determination for Reduction, the licensing 

 court could reduce licenses by one fourth ; but would 

 only be obliged to cancel two licenses if the existing 

 number is less than twenty-four ; three if the existing 

 number is less than thirty -six, and four if the exist- 

 ing numl^er is thirty-six or more. The adoption of 

 No-license would mean that three vears after the 

 date of the vote all licenses of every description, in- 

 cluding club certificates, would cease to be in force; 

 and the only legal sale of liqtior would be for medi- 

 cinal use, by a registered pharmaceutical chemist, 

 on the prescription of a legally qualified medical 

 ■man, and sold in a vessel bearing the words " intoxi- 

 ■oaring liquor." 



Now the bare fact that a Victorian Government has 

 introdured legislation to repeal compensation, and 

 to give to the people 1-ocal Option in an absolutely 

 complete form, has set many hearts vibrating with 

 joy, and brightened countless f.aces with the light of 

 hope. 1 cht-erfully render " honour to whom honour 

 IS due."' and when I critici.se I am not in a rarnins: 



mood. But to the average, fair-minded man, whe- 

 ther he be an ardent reformer or not, it must appear 

 that 



THE HANDICAPS AEE TOO HEAVY. 



I cheerfully recognise the fact that when Pariia- 

 ment is making conditions for a conflict for supre- 

 macy between the forces which make for righteous- 

 ness, and the powers of evil, the cause of Right must 

 be handicapped. It were too much to expect " a 

 fair field and no favour "' in such a case. But the 

 weights should not be so heavy as to be crushing. 

 The proposal to keep us waiting eleven, twelve or 

 even thirteen years for the first Local Option poll 

 is calculated to beat down enthusia.im. Still more 

 crushing in the hour of conflict would be the condi- 

 tion that if licenses be condetnned by the popular 

 vote most of them would have another three years 

 of grace. The Alliance Conference, in its commerid- 

 able desire to be reasonable, decided, by a majority- 

 vote, to submit to the condition which requires the 

 advocates of Xo-license to secure fifty per cent, more 

 votes than those given for Continuance and Reduc- 

 tion together. This decision was probably arrived 

 at under a wrong impression of the New Zealand 

 view of this obstacle to progress. The majority of 

 our New Zealand comrades resent it, as we shall in 

 the years to come, and, in my opinion, it would be 

 better to let it be said that we. protested from the 

 beginning. Our cautious friends point out the dan- 

 ger of re-action from the determination of a bare ma- 

 jority, but re-action does not follow the honest en- 

 forcement of No-license. If the law be well en- 

 forced by the authorities the tendency is to secure 

 for it an ever-increasing support from the electors. 

 The world's greatest contrast between License and 

 No-license was recently afforded by San Francisco, 

 and there No-license was enforced by no majority, 

 but bv the will of one man. 



This naturally leads to a final word on 

 THE SUCCESS OF NO-LICENSE. 



Statements were made by the Premier, in his 

 several deliverances upon the measure, which if they 

 were true would condemn his own proposals, for if 

 the effect of the abolition of licenses be to increase 

 drinking and dnmkenness, no Government would 

 be justified in conferring power upon the people to 

 call iiato existence greater evils than those which 

 they now endure. But, as it so often happens, the 

 facts are just the opposite of what Mr. Bent says. 

 Take the case of Mildura. I had the honour of sug- 

 gesting to the founders that Mildura should be run 

 as a Temperance settlement, and they at once adopt- 

 ed the proposal. But the legal provisions to make 

 it such were opposed bv the leaders of our party in 

 Parliament, on the ground that they would not be 

 effective; and were carried by the Government of 

 the day, which thought it knew better than the re- 

 formers. But in the early days of Mildura, before 

 the liquor traffic took advantage of the defects of 

 the law, the settlement really was a Temperance 



