ESTABLISHING A PUBLIC-HOUSE TO REDUCE DRINKING.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8534, 14 July 1893, Page 2

ESTABLISHING A PUBLIC-HOUSE TO REDUCE DRINKING.

TO THE EDITQR Of THE PRESS. Sir, —I commend the following extract from the Glasgow Weekly Herald, of April : 22nd last, to care|ul study of the prohibitionists of this city. It places before the public a view of the question hot usually fully considered by those who are anxious to put down drinking.—Yours, &c, Temperate.

(EXTBACT.) "How .is it possible to reduce drinking and disorder by planting a public-house iv a pjace where none existed before i One answer will probably be another question. How is it possible to have driuking and disorder where there is no public-house ? The answer to the second question, will help to explain the first, " ia Weal hife, seems to have had no public-house until Tueadaj r , when the Court at Duufermline granted a license " for one on the clear ground that it would promote temperance and order. The ' apparent riddle is simple enough. Absence of pubUc'hdases does cot imply absence of thirst, but the reverse. People in Laseodie are pretty much like oUter people, and will have their drop somehow. Tow i» » fact well known to a- certain class who have ecaot rev#*ence for the law, and a system of shebeens is the resnlt. Shebeena it?e illegal substitutes for the public-house, and their appearance is inevitable wherever legal accommodation is inadequate or entirely abseet. That shebeens are a anndrod time* worse than public-houses at their worst is proved by two circumstances well known to the police and other responsible persons. First, they are unlicensed, and, therefore, unregulated. This fact leads to unlimited drinking, and a variety of other evile. In the second ptace, the liquor sold by the abebeenen is generally inferior, and often little better than poison. The effect upon the drinkers is not merely intoxicating in the ordinary sense, but maddening to an extraordinary degree. It is, in fact, the breeder of immorality and crime, Bat Lassodie is afflicted by another system besides shebeening. The licensed grocer system afford* so accommodation lor consuming drama on the premises. One consequence is that those who don't care to patronise the shebeens can purchase liquor quite near at the Locbutty grocer's and consume it outside. This system, it appears, has become a public nuisance, ana ft source of disorder and danger. Proof of these things was for* niched on Tuesday, when the application for the license, came up for consideration. A letter was read from Chief Constable Bremner, who suggea&ed ' that by providing lawful accommodation at Lassodie the evils of sbebeeniug would be stopped, and an end would be put to the objectionable practice of roadside drinking.' These words reveal a pretty picture, aad warrant the view that under certain circumstances the establishment of a public-house may be a distinct m«aos of promating temperaoce. That it will do so atLassodie may be regarded as certain, especially as the public • house license absorbs the grocery license at Loehfitty." "