Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from "Local Option"-"Local Control"
WE have already said that the two principles for which our Society has, from the beginning, contended, have been, first, Progressive restriction in the facilities for drinking; and second, Local Control exercised by the ratepayers by means of Licensing Boards. We have brought the history of legislative effort down to the introduction of the Local Option Resolution of 1879. And we must now give a short account Of the course of action which led up to this.
The Permissive Bill had been before Parliament from 1864 to 1878 inclusive. Shortly, its provisions were to give to a two-thirds majority of the ratepayers in any place the power of extinguishing all licences for the sale of intoxicating drink. They were to vote yes or no on the question of granting licences at all. If a majority of two-thirds voted no, no house for the sale of strong drink could, for three years at least, exist in that place. The Bill provided no intermediate process, either for reducing the number of houses or preventing the issue of new licences. The vote was for all or none.
The course of the debates in Parliament must have convinced Sir W. Lawson that the Bill as it stood could never come within the range of practical politics. More over, representations were made, both public and private, to the effect that if the principle which was underlying the Bill - that of popular control - could be submitted to the House, apart from this special application of it, it would meet with a support far in excess Of any that the measure had as yet received.
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