Liquor Sale Control Act, which many people specially interested in the temperance movement regard as the most important of the trio. There had been a long and bitter conflict in the colony between popular rights and the vested interests of the publican. Sydenham, one of the suburbs of Christchurch, was the scene of the fight. There the Prohibitionists gathered their forces, and there they were beaten in the Courts. The attempt to secure local option on licensing matters through the Licensing Committees failed, and the people, aroused to action by the Prohibition leaders, demanded that they should be allowed the right of direct veto. Sir Robert Stout, as the champion of the Prohibitionists, introduced a drastic Bill. Mr. Seddon was in a very difficult position. The banking legislation tried his courage, but the licensing legislation tried his tact and skill. He showed that he had been as well endowed with one as with the other, and the Bill, which established the principle of local option, was passed.
