TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Evening Star, Issue 14038, 20 April 1909, Page 7

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[By Arrangement with the United Ternjxniuice Reform Council.] THE IIETIBEMENT OF MR WM -.THOMSON, As it has-been public property for some Dine that there was a. grave difference of opinion amongst members of the “ trade ” (J; to. value of the services rendered by 7 U " Min, Tnoiusoii to the Licensed Victuallers Association, the Hews now made public, as to his ictiremeul will not be surprising to many. it is no pate of the intention of this antcle to criticise or attack Air Thomson himself, and it will be assumed that lie acted in good faith throughout. It is. nowever, desirable that the great import) ante of his■ resignation and the facts that it cmphaM.-cs .-iniiild he made plain. ATI EM FT-TO UPLI FT THE TRADE FAILS. That a soiioas attempt, was at first made by Mr M r m. Thomson to remove the abuses which threatened the vciy existence of the “trade" the writer of these notes considers U beyond question. A system of lines by tin- Licensed Victuallers’ Association was instituted ; an attempt was made to see tint only p<-rson. : agreeable to the Licensed \ ictuidV-rs’ Association were gianted licenses: Mr Thomson himself became a soi t of inspector oi licensed houses, and presumably continually exhorted lh> In r:i-'ee to rectify abuses, and io adhere to the letter and to tb ' spirit of the licensing law. WHY DID ALL TIiTiS FAIL? (If course the public will b?, under no (c-iusion as to the cause of this sudden accession of virtue on the part of the lu eased victuallers. It was simple and H-leiy caused by the fact that in 1902 Rewas carried in Dunedin, and'the "Dado” feared that unless matters improved they would ho wiped off the man altogether in 1905. Vith such a, strong incentive to success, how, then, did it come about that so complete a failure lias followed the effort to lies troy (hose phases of the liquor • traftie that are known to irritate the public? The an.-wer can he pm in o nc .sentence, and that is; THESE DEFECTS ARE INSEPARABLE FROM ANY SYSTEM OF LIQUOIISELLINO. I lie whoF 1 a.-::s of alcoholic liquor-soli-ing in Dunedin and everywhere else in the work! is inhuman and unsound. It is [.uidy the greed of gain, and nothing else. B has been a frequent, experience of (he a titer L> talk with publicans when, owing to various causes, they had temporarily inrowu aside their usual cynical indilfeie...e, and were speaking out the very soul t.i.i.t was in them. When this happens, i: has been my invariable- experience that they condemn the whole business, lock, stick, and barrel, as being utterly rotten, and licely admit that no publican'can be a week m the "trade” without, his business becoming a contest between his pocket and bis conscience. IMAGINE THE' CUSTOMERS. he. us test, this question by imagining tiie cn.-touters. First, let, us lake the early morning, when men on their way to work at eight n clock call in to get a refresher to pull themselves together'after the previous night’s imbibiugs. Almost all of these eaily callers are'men who ate going down fast into sottishnnss, or who have already arrived at that stage. Each of them carries ail over him the signs of the wtpek of ;i once prosperous and cleanliving business or working nian. Ihe man at tnc bar is, ion familiar with ih.e signs nor to know that Urn glass of poison he hands out helps his' customer a li'tie further along the fatally easy path of decadence towards nilluiato destruction, llien, during the morning, there drop in the young men from (he warehouses, com mercial travellers, and others, and the snouting system is seen in all its hideous foolishness. While if is true that many of these cany their , liquor well, and do'not seem much thy worse for (heir indulgence, it is also true that in many other cases il, is plain to the most casual observer that the drinking habits of the set they moveill aie resulting in the speedy deteriorution of tuesc men. Does the barmaid or barman refuse to serve these persons, whom drink is hurting? Nay, verily. 'I hey are served as gladly or more gladly than the re..-t.. and being namlw'.w and very often agreeable, generous. "hail fellow well met" sorts, the barmaid and licensee, go out of their way to make Uiemseives agieeable. .Speaking from a business point of view, who shall‘blame them for thus laying themselves out to p-ease their best customers? la every other business he is the most commended who uses his talents to sell the laost of his goods. Why is this riot so in tm- liquor business? USUAL RULES DO NOT APPLY. In the answer to this question as to whv usual business rules do not apply to the minor trade lies the kerne! of the’agitation against it, and also the reason "of the .allure so far, of all methods of attempted control or improvement. la all other lines of business, such as wool product, dairy product, all manuiactuns etc., an increase in the volume 7 .to". ’’’-ismuss us universally hailed with dyngat. Not so an increase in the sale of honor. I do not know a single paper in New Zealand (except the liquor journals) t hat won hi have tae hardihood to publish a Fading article rejoicing in the increase of .me dunk bill. On the contrary, a !l 'with one accord had with satisfaction a decrease m tee amount of liquor sold. Thus ii seems that, while in regard to •d) other trades a man’s business excellence is in proportion to the.increase of his sales, in tm? liquor trade it is in proportion as ne succeeds in decreasing those sales. This one argument alone should be sufficient 'with any honest thinker to cause him to anmit that the only logical end to strive lor is ausolute prohibition of the sale of unior as a beverage in anv part of this fair Dominion. If all the papers with one. accord hail a decrease _m the national drink bill as a good thing und an increase as a bad tmng. at what stage does the decrease in sales oi alcohol cease In be a good tbiim uiul b'.'uojDO :i liacl thing? ° No thinker who has "not mastered that problem could honestly vote for maintaining the present, temptations to drink. WHAT ABOUT’ AIR THOMSON? What has this got to do w.kh AH- Thomson? I fancy I bear the reader sav. H has great deal to do with his failure, for he has, m fact, attempted the imuossible. Before, however, passing from the" subject of the customers at a licensed house we must take note of the evening business and of the ,Saturday business. Bet any man go to the average liar on an average evening: let him stand In look am- listen to what goes on. In a xvorkirm man s bar the men, stolid at first, become! as the evening goes on, garrulous, quarrel? some, or foolish. The licensee and the barman or barmaid see a large proportion--01 them turn from decent, self-respecting men into babbling fools or worse under tnev hands. Tu bars where the principal iraue i« with young business men the same process goes on under slightly less revolting conditions. As to_ tlic Batiinlny's trade, who .shall pictiir.; m adequate words the abominable selushness of that business which takes for a useless mid hurtful return perhaps £2 5s or £2 out of a man’s £2 IQs' weekly wages before he leaves for home, and sends him staggering forth to face his wife and ihildion with lint the miserable remnants, if any at all-, of his hard earnings? A et all of this the publican must do if he is to make a living and bo able to pay the, .high rents demanded from him. Thus Mr Thomson came to a clientile and asked them to let good Tnoney pass them by in order to make' them stand better with the public. Jhe only answer he got was the request that the brewers should begin by reducing the rents. Needless to say, this was' not done, and so the licensees naturally derided his efforts,, and accused him of wishing to reform, them without costing his real masters anything. Thus was Air Thomson checkmated at tho very outset. Then, in desperation, he produced a Licensing Bill, tho main clause of which, was a fair rout regulation as beUyeen owner and licensee and the preven-

tion of extortion by frequent sales of the license on short leases.' I'his Bill was laughed out of court, but Air Thomson was right when he said that its acceptance was essential -to improvement. XU LMPROVEAIENT AT ALL.' And now, after live years’ presence in our midst oi one who evidently realised dearly that improvement in the combat of the trade was essential to its continuance, the failure to effect such improx c-mc-nt is absolute, and he is departing to fresh fields and pastures new. .Since Ins arrival arrests for drunkenness have gone up some 50, per cent., and the magisterial rad licensing committee complaints as to youthful drunkenness have been frequent und forceful. Where riov.\ are all the boastful promises? Thus ends one more phase of the long and slow education of the public towards.the fact that there is only ouo solution of the. liquor-selling question, and that is no liquor selling. The most amazing part of this lasi phase, just (dosed, has been the attempt to buttress ii)) the legal selling of rum; brandy, whisky, schnapps, fortified Wine, beer, and sundry other abominations by the alleged example oi the Saviour o*f Mankind in drinking unfortified alcoholic wine, and by the te;u kings of the Bible generally, fancy such a. business as I have described continuing with the approval of the Son of God, whose lie-art ahvavs wont out to the weak, the afflicted, and the tempted ! Bivines who-are out of touch with modevn thought and experience have been quoted ad nauseam in the endeavor to hold back the drift of Christian thought generally towards Xc-liconse. But it is all of no avail. AX OFFENCE TO COMMON SENSE, Whether the wine ‘that the Saviour of Mankind drank was alcoholic jar not tand no one who has (he slightest" belief that the Saviour was Uod as well as man could believe it to have been alcoholic in view of the revelations of modern science), there was not in it any other alcohol than that produced in the ferment of the grape-juice alone. Nearly all the wine sold to-day is highly fortified with cheap spirits, the'distillation of which was not discovered, at any rate in the Western world, until long alter the 1 imo of the advent of the '» vimir. It is therefore an absurdity to attempt to justify the use of the liquors sold to-day by relei-cnco to the comparative]v weak wmo of Bible times (even such of il as was uicoholic). Tits attempt to maintain slavery was supported by the Idler of the Bible, but defeated by iis spirit. Similarly this attempt to argue on the letter of "the Bible will be defeated bv the whole spirit of the Book.