Intelligent Fiji

Liquor Report

Fiji liquor report will no A doubt be pretty thoroughly de bated, but it will be a pity if too many alterations are made to it.

It is the work of a well-balanced committee, remarkably representative.

There are some people, of course, who are against drink in any form.

But once the principle has been ac cepted, then it is difficult to handle the situation in a better way than the Fiji committee proposes. The Fijians have been officially allowed to drink beer since 1958, and the latest pro posals are merely a natural sequel to that successful experiment. Con tinued drink restrictions would be re garded as racial discrimination.

The British Solomons has also been handling intelligently its drink prob lem recently. The British Govern ment seems to be far less hamstrung by the voices of the calamity howlers than New Zealand and Australia.