Evening Post. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23,1886.

Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 44, 23 February 1886, Page 2

Evening Post. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1886.

THE LICENSING ELECTIONS. ♦ It is a vary singular faot that notwithstanding the great activity displayed by the prohibition party daring the last yoar, and the missions of Mrs. Lbatitt, Mr. Booth Mr. Glover, and others, the prohibition candidates have been defeated in almost every reoent licensing eleotion, from Auckland to Inveroarinll. Wo hare heard a great deal ahont the enormous number of people who have signed the pledge or taken the blue ribbon at these mission meetings, bnt the faot remains that the strength of the party has certainly not increased at the ballot-box. At the same time, it must bs admitted that the sobriety of the people generally has increased, and the Customs' returns show a deorease in the consumption of alcoholio liquors. Drunkenness is now muoh lesß rife than it was a few years baok. The experience of pnblio holidays, affords the best pot Bible proof of this. Taken together, these facts supply oariooß grounds for reflection. They tend, we think, to show that the pnblio mind, although well disposed towards temperanoe, is by no means inolinod to aooept the extreme dootrine of absolute prohibition. The people desire to see the trade in drink regulated, but not altogether suppressed, and they naturally recoil from the extreme doctrines whioh most of th» professional advocates of temperance so often intemparately advance. It is the extremes to, whioh these persons wish togo whioh frighten moderate people and alienate their sympathy. The wholesale denunciation of everyone who is not a total abstainer, the strong and offensive language which is used towards those engaged in the trade and towards moderate drinkers, and the rather wild threats of what they would do if they had full power, oause a very natural reaotion, and make sensible men averse to trusting them with any power at all, lest they should abuse it. We believe that at the reoent licensing polls in this district the temperance candidates wonld have fared better had Mr. Gloves and Sir William Fox not spoken quite so muoh as they did just before the eleotion. The threat which was freely used that they had "spotted" a number of hotels, and ft they got their men in would cloee these houses, had the effect or' making a good many real friends of temperanoe vote for the publioaaß* tioket. There was something revolting to men's natnral sense of justice that the proporty and means of livelihood of fellowcitizens should be placed at the nierey of a secret and irresponsible body of men, some of whom might be actuated by very unworthy motives, and that judges shonld bo placed

upon the bench, not to exercise their own disoretion and decide on the merits of eaoh particular case, but Bimply to register and PT? j ff l ot to tne de °rees of some power behind the bench. We do not tor one moment do the gentlemen who stood on the temperanoe tioket the injustice of supposing that they would have accepted any anon politics cr havo failed to discharge their judicial outioß faithfnlly and impartially had thoy been elected. They simply anfferod by tho indiscreet utterances of their friondn. Intentions woro ascribed to them which thuy probably never entertained, and it was oponly statod that they were prepared to act in a manner in whioh it would havo boon moßt improper and dUhononrabls for them to not had they been olootod. A great many ratepayers who wonld gladly luto supported the temperanoo candidates to enßure a strict administration of the law as it stands, and to close moro drinking shops if, after duo warning, they failed to oovelop into proper houses for the legitimate accoromooation of the public, wore afraid to do bo from a fear that the committee men might after all provo mere tools in the hands of others, and be uaod to further tho ends of fanaticism. That a colonial community will ever accept the full dootrino of total prohibition wo do not for an instant believe, and those who avow that they will be content with nothing less not only lobo the opportunity of doing a groat deal of good in promoting the canae of temperance, but really do that cause much ham by exciting a strong reaction againßt their extravagant opinions and aims. They forget the nooeßsity for being temperate in all tbinga.