LICENSING COMMITTEES.

Evening Star, Issue 10342, 16 June 1897, Page 4

LICENSING COMMITTEES.

0 wad some power the giftie gie us To -ee oursels as others see us. TO THE EDITOF. Sir, —Most of our licensing committees hive, at their recent meetings, acted in a m inner which would lead or.e to suppose that the members of these committees had completely lo9t their heads. But theii folly and stupidity fairly sink into insignificance when compared with the conduct of the Invercirgill Licensing Committee. Thest wise gentlemen, after having granted an extension from ten till eleven o'clock indiscriminately to the hotels, suggested, almost in the same breath, that the Minister of Justice be recommended to bring before the Cabinet the necessity for establishing inebriate homes, the funds required to be oVained by an increase on licensing fees. Mirk, sir, the lunacy of their action. First they grant greater facilities for the increase of drunkenness, ard then they cry out for homes to put the drunkards in—yes, these very droiikurds whom they themselves have helped ro manufacture. Again, mark their wise suggi-etion regirding the cost of these homes : it was to be paid out of the moneys accruing from an increase of licensing fees—or, in other words, from an increase < f drunkenness; for an extra hour at night means extra drinking, and extra drinking means extra drunkenness.

These highly intellectual gentlemen seem to forget entirely that an increase of the drink revenue means an increase in the consumption of drink, and consequently an increase in' the harvest of crime and debauchery. Talk about inebriate, homes, indeed! I think asylums for locking up insane licensing committees would be much nearer the mark. We boast of our Christianity, of our enlightenment, of our civilisation, in this nineteenth century ; but when it comes to the settling of any knotty poiut or vital question we act in a more foolish and unreasonable manner than the most untutored savage in the world.—l am, etc., Searchlight. Dunedin, June 14.