THE LICENSING QUESTION.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11461, 20 December 1902, Page 5

THE LICENSING QUESTION.

TO THi EDITOR OT TH» PEE 99. Sir,—l notice that the Prohibitia leaders are taking great credit to them selves for the present condition of publi opinion in regard to the no-license question Does it never strike those gentlemen thai perhaps, if it had not been for themselves public opinion might have dealt the trad a severe lesson years ago? Personally, never feel so lenient to the publicans a just after reading a copy of the "Prohibi tionist" newspaper, or listening , to ao attack on the trade in the Square. I hay heard very many people, who have no sor of interest in siding with the publicans, ex press the same sort of feeling. It is * significant fact that the strongest vote re corded against the trade has been after < long period of comparative quietness on th> part of the Prohibition leaders, a perwx during which the Rev. £L. Isitt has beei absent from the colony, and Mr T. E- Tay lor has kept quiet on the subject, tte until a few days before the election, i looked as if he had lost interest in the ques tion. What if it should be that the® gentlemen have really proved a stumblinj •block in the way of their own cause, bj compelling the better-regulated portioi of the public to keep aloof through eheea disgust: There is no doubt that the peo of New Zeailand, including the moderate drinkers, are a temperate and law-abidinf people, and their sympathies most certainlj do not go with drunkenness or crime. The situation is realy this. There axe twe extreme parties, both intensely interested in the question. On the one hand there are those people who have had strong cause for thinking that prohibition is necessary, and these people deserve the sympathy, ii they do not get th* support, of everybody. At the other extreme ore the publicans and other people interested in the trade, and that portion of the' public who find the bare necessary for tlheir requirements.. Neither of these directly interested parties are numerically very strong. But in between some the general public, who without any strong personal interest in the question, ride with one or other of the parties for various reasons'of their own. There are the people who, from motives of economy, trant of inclination, or on principle, •do not use alcoholic beverages. There are the moderate drinkers who never, or only occasionally, use the hotels, and tnere are Jie ■heedless, who vote' just as the whim xkes them. None .of these people are itrongjy interested .in keeping open the jars, nor, on the'other hand, have iney jersonally felt the necessity for prohibizion. ' As we nil'know, many ■ moderate irinkers have voted against the bar system, vhile of course a great number have voted m its side, mainly because of an iinpresion that the publicans have certain rights, is fellow-citizens, in following a trade, tfhioh, admitting certain undoubted evils n connexion with it, is not expressly main - ained for drunkenness and crime, as the irohibitionists would have us believe. But 0 little are theee moderates directly intersted in favour of the hotels, that a scandal a connection with the trade will transfer Kindreds of votes to the no-license side [uicker than any number of prohibition peeches would. Whether wieely or not, a great numbsr if the moderate drinkers who voted noicense, did so,, I think, with a view to ealing with one branch only of the trade, :ot with a view to general prohibition, tut undoubtedly many of them did so with he unselfish intention of sacrificing their wn wants for the good of those for whom rohibition is really necessary. And I rould like to put this matter to the proibition leaders in a manner which seems > have escaped them. I suppose it can c safely assumed that if all consumers •ere moderates, that is, if there were no runkards, prohibition would not ba oon;dered necessary by anybody. Ateo that :ie drunkards in New Zealand form only very small minority of the population. ow, supposing it js assumed, for argument's sake, that it is quite right for the ,ronger-willed portion of the public to icrifice themselves for. the good of the eaker, still the prohibitionists should remember that it is a eacrifice that they ask 1 the two parties, viz., the trade and ie moderates, and they should go about ie business in a leas bullying and boastful vie, xf they wish to get the latter (who nave at bo much at stake as the former) to terifice their wants for the sake of the runkards - The prohibitionists should rer^ th f ail to gain, while ie moderate drinkers and the trade make w sacrifice. T-ho people who, from moves of economy, or from want of inclinaon (a large class), who do not use conolic beverages, make no sacrifice in ymg to abolish something which it of J use to them, although it is easy enough ►r many of them to deceive themselves tat they are acting from the highest moves. ° I take it that the recent heavy poll in your of no license on the part of the oderate drinken. has been with a view > regulation, not extinction, of the affic, and has been brought about in lite of the prohibitionists. Still, if the tter are pleased with the result they ust remember that the success from their >int of view has only been comparative. continuance is still in strong swing all H?r the colony. It may be supposed that, t this time, the no licence party has tht pport of all the people in the colony ho do not use alcoholic beverages. Tiiez* n hardly be any further reserve to draw Ktn in this direction, so that in the future ith publicans and prohibitionists must ok to the moderate drinkers for the sting votes necessary to give either party c predominance And I can assure both irties that it w good behaviour, not bad, at will get the votes. A solitary cas<beastly drunkenness, v bad bar-room w, will each time cause many moderate inkers k> reconsider the situation, while i the other hand the jaunty boastful de adopted by the leaders of. the probitionists. the disgracefully exaggerated tacks on all people who do not see eye eye vita them, will do more than at\y ing eke to muke the moderate drinkVr B*ct whether, after all. he is fair in serting a trade -which would have gor:t ider, long ago, if it had existed only r the sake of drunkenness, instead of, as s been the case, to meet the require mts of the moderate party.—Yours, etc..