JUSTICES’ JUSTICE TO PUBLICANS.

Evening Star, Issue 7168, 23 March 1887, Page 2

JUSTICES’ JUSTICE TO PUBLICANS.

TO THK EDITOR. Sik, —The decision of the great unpaid” have always been the subject of much newspaper correspondence, but a decision arrivodat yesterday by our Dunedin J.P.s officiating in the Police Court is more than strange, for if your report of the case “Wilson v. Ogg ” is correct it is nothing less than a miscarriage of justice. The complainant’s evidence was clear, and corroborated by several witnesses, whilst the witnesses for the defence were contradictory of each other ; beyond which, it was not denied by the defendant that the roan Wilson had been supplied with drink by him that night. I venture to say that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the defendant would have been convicted, and proceedings ordered to be taken against him for a breach of the Licensing Act in supplying a drunken man with liquor. Surely such a decision as this how nearly impossible it is to “ control” the liquor traffic, and one cannot wonder that the police are loth to take action when such men sit on the Bench to adjudicate. I suppose, sir, we must take it that if one we love or are interested m should unfortunately come under the influence the “drink demon,” we must not “annoy the publican by warning him against supplying drink to such; and if we do, he is quite at liberty to seize us by the throat and thrust us into the street as a nuisance. A few such decisions as this one will do more to wake the people to a sense of the terrible power the “trade” wields than many temperance addresses, —I am, etc., G* Dunedin, March 22,