We would most earnestly ask the nation not to be
misled into supporting the present Bill on the mistaken ground that it is doing justice to the publican, who is being unfairly attacked by the extreme Temperance party. What is at issue is not justice versus fanatical teetotalism, but the loss of a vast public revenue. There is a perfectly legitimate revenue of at least £10,000,000 a year to be derived in these islands from the State-created liquor monopoly. If the present Bill passes, we shall practically render it impossible for the State ever to possess itself of the property it has created. Reason- able compensation is another matter. If we place a time- limit of five years, and pay five, four, three, two, or one year's purchase of the profits as compensation for any license not regranted within those five years, according to the year of refusal, we shall have done what equity requires. After the expiration of ' the time-limit, all licenses should be renewed for periods of, say, five years—subject, of course, to good behaviour—at high-license rates.
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