LICENSED HOTELS V. SLY GROG SHOPS ON THE NORTHERN WAIROA.

Auckland Star, Volume VII, Issue 1972, 5 June 1876, Page 2

LICENSED HOTELS V. SLY GROG SHOPS ON THE NORTHERN WAIROA.

(To tho Editor of the Evening Star). Sik,—A letter signed " One Who Knows " and a prominent paragraph on the above subject in Saturday's Evening Star appear to demand notice from me. It can bo shown that during the last three years or so nineteen persons were drowned in the Northern Wairon. River through intoxication. Twelve or fourteen of these are proved by evidence to have obtained drink at the hotel carried on by Dr Campbell in his manager's name at Mangawhare. I question whether any sly grog shop could exceed that in the time, and I feel sure that had Dr Campbell been in the habit of visiting Mangawhare occasionally he would have acceded to my proposal repeatedly made within the last two or three years, and that we two, together with the mill owners and settlers could long since have almost entirely, if not altogether, checked the frightful amount of drunkenness that prevails in the district. It is stated by the Star, that Dr Campbell thinks if the hotels are closed as such, sly grog Belling will become a' worse evil. Now I know the district thoroughly, and I am convinced that while it is of coarse possible there may be some little traffic of tbe kind, the si.? grog sellers will be so closely watched that the evil consequences will be of an exceedingly mild nature as compared with the foregoing. We have now sufficient police agency on the river, and, besides, the four principal employers of labour there have agreed to offer a large reward for a conviction. I can further state that Tirarau, the most influential native chief in the district, and Abraham Taonni, another, have both determined not to permit it amongst the natives. As the Star has allowed my private affairs to be raked up in the anonymous attack made upon me in its columns, I am reluctantly compelled to reply. The writer states that the hotel, if the license be refused will not pay as a boarding, house. Assuming that to be', correct, what else can it be used for ? Can it be turned into a sawmill or flax-

mill ? True, it would make a splendid hos-

pital, but that will not be required if the hotels are closed. By the writer's own showing therefore, the property will be greatly deteriorated in value if the license be refused, As for the hardship I am represented as inflicting upon the widow and children by closing the hotel, it is fair to state that Mr Raynes himself, the licensee, is the youngest child by some ten or twelve years, and that I have agreed in the event of the license beiflg refused, to cancel his lease, and offered to let the house to his family ab less than half the rent as a boarding-house. He will also be compensated for his contribution towards the erection of the Public Hall. When he took the hotel hia capital was £80. He is now worth £1,000, and has paid me nearly £400 for rent during the eighteen months he has been in it. Let me again state that lam

reluctantly compelled to gi> into these mat-; i fcera. For myself I do not pratend that I shall be in every respect a great loser by the closing of these hotels. I employ on an average one hundred men in my business. These men will work better when beyond the reach of liquor. The prosperity of the district generally, in which I am largely interested, will be advanced, and settlement will be promoted when our noblo river shall be no longer notorious as the drunkard's grave, but shall become known only ss Nature's magnificent highway through one of the finest districts in the colony.—Yours &c, J. M. Dakoavillg.