A WORKING MAN ON THE LIQOUR QUESTION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 120, 8 June 1881, Page 3

A WORKING MAN ON THE LIQOUR QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.

Sir, — In one of the earlier writings of Tom Hood, he describes an assemblage of agricultural laborers, who, after their money is all gone, are keeping up the form of good fellowship with a can of cold water. The topic of conversation is upon the prevailing agricultural distress. One of them remarks : " Now, look at the queer remedies they proposes — ' a Bible,' says one; 'a reading- made-easy,' says another : while another says ' the "Wenus, bound fer Horse-trail- ye :' but I says, if a doctor was to come and put his ' telescope 1 to my stomach, he would hear it say as plain as our magpie, ' I wants wittles.' " The above sketch is, I think, an apt illustration of the efforts of some people to make men sober. One of the principal arguments of the advocates of local option is that by restricting the number of pub-lic-houses, they will therefore diminish the drinking habits of society. Why, I have known men go six miles after a day's work to get grog, A more convincing proof, to my mind, that the facility or otherwise of obtaining drink has very little to do with the question, is this. Many years ago I was keeping a public-house in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, where drink of all kinds can, or could be then, obtained at about one-eighth the cost of what it is in the colonies, and in no part of the world where I have been have I seen such a display of teetotalism among people on excursions or picnics, and such-like outings, as I saw there. During the whole time I was there, I do not remember a single instance of any one lying drunk in the streets, as is unfortunately too often to be seen in the colonies. Now, with regard to the working men in New Zealand, the majority of them — single men, I mean — are merely like birds of passage. They have no ambition or desire to convert New Zealand into smiling farms ; but if a new gold-field or other attraction offered elsewhere, would be off as soou as their means allowed them to do so. They work hard, and live hard, and are subject to all the vicissitudes of heat and cold, and when their job or contract is finished, they resort to the nearest public-house, not merely for the sake of the drink itself, but because they look for a change from their usual toil, in the same way that a professional man takes to cricket, billiards, shooting, or other congenial amusement, as a variation to the dull routine of th" desk or countinghouse. I thiuk it would show more of an earnest of good faith if Sir William Fox, with the talents and influence he undoubtedly possesses, would (his instructive lectures not being always available) endeavor to offer some counter attraction to the public-house, instead of indulging in indiscriminate abuse of all who do not hold his peculiar views. The coffee palaces, for instance, in Sydney and elsewhere, are, I believe, a success from a commercial point of view. One step in the right direction would be a strict and systematic supervision of the quality of the drinks sold, as from my knowledge of the trade, I am certain that many of the concoctions retailed in the country are far more indebted to the skill of the chemist than the brewer or distiller ; hence the stupefying effect so often observed, even with moderate drinking. Did space permit, I could relate some startling incidents which would go to prove that the "leering, hiccupiug" drunkards are not confined to those Sir William graphically describes, but are to be found iv the class to which he belongs, only they have greater facilities for concealing the same from the public gaze, as my occupation in the old country brought me in contact with all grades of society from a duchess to. the denizens of the New Cut and Kent street, so that I have had greater opportunities, both by day and night, of seeing life in all its phases than Sir William can possibly have had, or is ever likely to have. — I am, &c,

JOSIAH CLARIDGE.