NO-LICENSE IN INVERCARGILL.

Evening Star, Issue 13031, 15 August 1908, Page 11

NO-LICENSE IN INVERCARGILL.

[Specially Written for the Dunedim ?Star.'] Being the first of a series of articles wherein it will be the endeavor of the writer to show fairly the-jneffectiveness (as it seems to him, and may be seen by anybody) of the present system of No-: license, in Invercargill. No. I. —Principally "Kegging."— It is fully realised at the beginning of this work that the man who sets pen to taper m tins <Uv and generation on the subject of No .license sets also a match w> certain highly inflammable elements. Mos% the writers and talkers on tiu% subject are partisans of one side or the ether, and therefore it should not lie surprising if the public have become suspicious "more than seven watchmen that sit aloft m ,a high tower." Consequently it seems well to the present writer to clear the way at the outset by some personal explanation. He is no sort of a missionary one way or the other, and has no end that would he served by serving either side. The fundamental purpose of these articles is to be sold for publication, and they were so sold before they w-ere seen by the publishers, who were good enough to trust to the writer's regard for decency and truth and such reputation as he may have among the people of the Press. The possit.il.ty of the application to this foreword of tho pro-verb " qui s'excu6e s'accuse" has been considered and frankly faced in view of the intensity of feeling in this matter and_ of the current suspicions aforesaid. No-lieeuse, as was nv.ide obvious by that which followed the perpetration of the famous "Clause 9," was not intended by its advocates to be "Prohibition," though to that consummation it may be a convenient stepping-etone. What 'is emphatically claimed for the abolition of licensed bars, however, is that it lessens drinking by removing temptation. And the people whom it is designed to benefit are those to whom drink is a serious menace. Looked at casually, that claim seems modest enough; but experience has shown that mere Nolicense, though it may be a source of some benefit, is very far from doing what its disciples said it would do. I take it that it is unnecessary for me here to treat of the ethics of that temperance which would exist if the source of intemperance were removed, or to urge the obvious truth that there is no virtue in abstaining from theft when there is nothing to thieve. The Prohibitionist docs not deal in ethics; his watch word is "Expediency," but whether anything that has no ethical base can be expedient in tho best sent* is another matter.

What I propose to show in this article is that No-license, as we have it here (which, admittedly, is not quite as the Prohibitionist would have it), is at best an inconvenience to men who drink. The surprising feature of it is that the inconvenience weighs heaviest on the shoulders of those who could get along very well without any interference, and is no more than a trifle to the man whom it was desired to reach. This may not be apparent on the face of things; but its truth has been forced upon me during two years or so of observing and inquiry in this town. The fact is that no one in Invercargill who wants liquor and can pay for liquor need be without liquor; the peculiarities pertain to the manner of procuring it. There are several legal wave and a great many illegal ways. I propose to deal fiist with the legal ways. As in all No-License districts, one may import through the Customs or by the pocket, according to quantity and other circumstances. But Invercargill, by reason of the fact that it lies within a couple of miles or so of the boundary of the adjoinlicensed district, is possessed of a much easier source of supply. Just across that boundary, until recently, were several depots at which the two local brewers and M'Gayin and Co., of Dunedin, retailed beer in quantities ranging from 2"al upwards. It is a comfortable saunter from town to the Waihopai bridge, on the further side of which the depots lie, and of a Saturday evening in the days when the depots remained open for business at night the North road swarmed with people going and coming, on foot, on bicycles, in cabs, in carts, and in motor cars. One evening I counted thirty-seven bicycles leaning against the fences and walls from the bridge to the nearest depot, which adjoins, and for an hour I watched the unceasing stream of thirsty ones, and wondered.

A popular pastime in those days was the " river party," and a river party is worth description. Certain kindred spirits —usually not more than four for "a small 'un"—when they happened to be financial to the extent of " fi' bob," would tender that sum at a depot for a sgal keg of beer. If they were notably affluent they might, for another shilling or so, procure also a spigot and a glass; but these were luxuries, and the absence of them was no particular inconvenience to Bill and his pals. With their keg, then, " the party" would go clown to the river bank, find a cosy nook, settle themselves comfortably— and soak. When funds didn't run to the luxuries aforementioned, the manner of the ! drinking was primitive, but skilful. The ! man whose turn it was to drink would lie on his back, and, carefully poising the keg on his chest, tilt it and gulp till he was satisfied or his mates interfered. One night a "kegger" fell into the river and was nearly drowned. Five shillings expended in a keg goes a long way if the "syndicate" be not too large. ' One Constable Scandret.t, a large man, discreet, and considerably übiquitous, was given a roving commission, with particular reference to keg parties, and he, by devious Kcoutings and sudden appearances, robbed the river party of some of its soft, seclusive charm. Which, perhaps, was a good thing, fofHho quiet aloofness of the "ai fresco shikker" (as the phrase went) was a lure to certain citizens, to whom the frank publicity of bar drinking was a deterrent, by reason of their j " respectability." I once saw at the rear of a depot a group of four men. They stood in the dark of a soggy paddock and drank steadily, turn about, with one glass, from a beer keg which was perched on a strainer pojt. Not one of those men was a drinking man in the ordinary sense of the word, but the thrall of the New Way was over them. As I was going back to town I saw them again—pulling people off their bicycles, and generally being extremely funny. Five shillings under License and the shouting system wouldn't have carried them half so f^r. In due course the powers that be decreed that the depots should close at 5 p.m., and that cut short the evenings by the river. But, as someone somewhere sings: "All places that the eye of Heaven visits are to the wise man ports and happy havens." and so the chronic kegger distributed himself here and there, and no longer centralised on the banks of the Waihopai. It meant that he had to go earlier for his keg and carry it further I when he got it; that-was nil. He bewail I to be seen regularly of an afternoon biking depotwards and coming back again with a smoothly-bulging pack over his shoulder. In and around Invercargill there are many public reserves, designed, as it might almost seem, for the special convenience of such thirsty ones as have no fitting den of their own wherein to carouse. The al fresco business is safer than the den, anyway, for a house in which there is known to be much drinking is liable to be raided and raids arc unpleasant, if no worse.

By-anci-bye, as the result of agitations and deputations and writings to and fro there came a decree by which the days of th?. depots were numbered. Time was allowed for the clearing off of such stocks as were in hand, but after that there were to be no more permits. It sounded effectual, and for a time there was woe in the hearts of Iho thirsty But two of the local linns straightway converted their depots into brcwerias, and there they make their beer and sell it as freely a* before. Just' now the weather does not suit for river-bank-ing, but -doubtless; when summer brings back the long, warm gloamings there will be' a recrudescence. Meantime, the local consumption of beer is remarkable for winter and—" Prohibition."