NBWTA Report 1903-046
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| | | | 86 87 one ‘“in process of arising—I won’t put it more strongly than that—is any lose not does which and , character ‘which is of the most serious are “part of its seriousness when I reflect that the magistrates who magis- very the es themselv either ns, “effecting these sudden resolutio “trates or the successors in office of the very magistrates, brought about y, “the state of things which is now being rapidly, if not arbitraril ‘wholly trusted, would do something to mitigate the plague and to stay “its ravages.’ He went on to explain that he had never had any difficulty in accepting the principle that ‘“‘ each district by its elected “representatives should, at its discretion, deal with and control the ‘traffic, which “altered.” ““T Hope QUARTER SESSIONS WILL REVERSE THE “EXTRAVAGANT OF THE DECISIONS.” Having gone on to censure in the most unmitigated terms the action of the magistrates, Mr. Balfour proceeded :— “— do not know, gentlemen, that you will expect me to say “ anything more upon the question of policy, nor have any of you asked “‘me—and I think rightly and wisely—what precise course it 1s the Remember, ‘business of the Government to take at the present time. I hope will and reverse, may Sessions Quarter that place, first “in the ‘reverse, at all events the most extravagant of the decisions—-if that 1s ‘the proper word to apply to them, and I fear it is—which have been I hope that may be the case, but “ given at the Brewster Sessions. “putting that contingency out of view, all whom I am addressing are ‘aware that this problem has only really reached its acute stage within “the last month—certainly it never came before me in any prominent ‘way until within a very few weeks.” Vizws or OTHER STATESMEN ON “ THIS GREAT aaa In 1879, in INDUSTRY.” And now it would be instructive to consider for a moment what is the opinion of other able men with regard to this “great industry.” In 1896 Mr. Chamberlain, speaking at Birmingham on the drink problem, said:— “The attempt to deal with this subject for the people, and without . . . . Acts have ‘the people, has been a conspicuous failure. ‘““been passed, and tried and thrown aside, and the evil remains unabated. J do not wonder, then, sometimes, that good and earnest , . “« “ men should despair, in presence of the persistent continuance of the But when states- ‘evil, of being able to find any successful remedy. “men have only made the matter worse, when Parliament has legislated “to no purpose, I am still sanguine that the people themselves, if be the source of much misery and response to this Memorial, the House of Lords was in the same year induced to appoint a Select Committee on intemperance. That Committee reported in 1879, after considering and criticizing the Permissive Billand Mr. Chamberlain’s Gothenburg scheme, and proceeded with special reference to the latter proposal to justify the principle of local control thus :-— ‘‘ We a Tur to In 1877, Mr. Chamberlain made a motion in the House of Commons to the effect that Town Councils should be empowered to purchase compulsorily the existing interests in the retail trade in intoxt- cating drinks in their localities ; and, thereafter, ¢/they see fif, to carry on the trade for the convenience of the inhabitants. This proposal would have given localities power to purchase and then entirely suppress the trade or carry it on under their own management. In 1876 a Clerical memorial to the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, signed by 13,584 of the clergy of the Church of England, about two-thirds of the whole number, declared that intemperance must prevail “so long as temptations to it abound on every side,” and in urging that some remedial measure of legislation should be pressed for- ward, quoted and directed special attention to the recommendation of the Report of the Convocation of Canterbury that “a legal power of “restraining the issue or renewal of licences should be placed in the “hands of the persons most deeply interested and affected, namely the “inhabitants themselves, who are entitled to protection from the “injurious consequences of the present system.” Mosr Mr. Balfour ended by saying :— “T hope you will content yourselves with the statement that what “has occurred appears to us to be in many cases, however well intended, “but little short in its practical effect of unjust confiscation of property, “and that to the unjust confiscation of property it is impossible that ‘either Parliament or His Majesty’s Government can remain in- “ different.” has been found crime do not wish to undervalue the force of these objections, but if the risks be considerable so are the expected advantages. And when great communities—deeply sensible of the miseries caused by intemperance ; witnesses of the crime and pauperism which directly spring from it ; conscious of the contamination to which their younger citizens are exposed; watching with grave anxiety the growth of female intemperance on a scale so vast, and at a rate of progression so rapid as to constitute a new reproach and new danger; believing that not only the morality of their citizens but their commercial prosperity is dependent upon the diminution of these evils ; seeing also that all that general legislation has been able to effect has been some improvement in public order, while it has been power- less to produce any perceptible decrease of intemperance ; it would seem somewhat hard, when such communities are willing at their own cost and hazard to grapple with the difficulty, and |