TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8593, 21 September 1893, Page 3

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Coif__spoN->ents are requested to make their communications short. While always anxious to find space for letters on questions of interest, we do not undertake to publish them unless they are short and to the point. The necessity for brevity is especially great during the session of Parliament. HOTELKEEPERS AND THE LICENSING ACT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —I am not a prohibitionist or abstainer and have no sympathy with extremists of any kind, still I am convinced that if the present Licensing Act was more generally oDserved by hotelkeepers there would not be such an hostile feeling against the trade, and the public who are neither prohibitionists nor publicans would have put a stop to the tomfoolery of these fanatical parsons and would be politicians long ago. Now, for instance, between 12 and 1 o'clock one night or early morning last week I was passing one of the respectable hotels in Christchurch when I saw a young man, quite a lad, whom I had known from birth and whose parents and family are the most respected in the city, come staggering drunk, with others, out of the front door. I have since ascertained that the young fellow had been attending a social dance until 11.30 that night, where only light refreshments are provided, and then adjourned to the hotel. Now, sir, what I wish to point out is this, that if the law with regard to closing bars at 11 o'clock had been observed this young man and others would have gone home sober, instead of being encouraged, or at any rate permitted, to make beasts of themselves, and perhaps sow the seed of future intemperance with all its attendant evils and miseries. Many will say that it is so difficult for the police to prevent this. But on this occasion a policeman was conversing with a cabman in full view of the hotel and the palpably drunken young man, and took no notice. There is no use disguising the fact that, some of the hotels in Christchurch are more or less offenders in this respect, and that drink can invariably be procured after the hour of closing. With old seasoned and experienced men there may not be so much harm, but to encourage young fellows to gamble and drink to early hours in the morning should be put a stop to, and is the reason why many temperate men like myself, who hate prohibition and direct veto, still consider reform or better administration of the Act to be necessary. lam writing this as a hint to the police and hotel-keeper, and instead of giving away the young man to his father and friends who perhaps would make the hotel proprietor suffer more than he deserved. With regard to the police, if Mr Inspector Broham desires to have the law obeyed in respect to closing bars at eleven, let him instruct his men to visit all the hotels on their beat every night for a month, say, from fifteen to thirty minutes after eleven, and take down the names of those whose bars are open, and also the names of those, not boarders, who are present, whether drinking or not, and report the same each morning. This, without prosecution or persecution, would soon put a stop to late hours and night birds, as the frequenters would become ashamed and alarmed at their names being reported.—Yours, &c, Oesesveb.