INNKEEPERS' RESTRICTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 2901, 16 May 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

INNKEEPERS' RESTRICTIONS.

'To the Editor of the Herald.

gj2 j —-A member of the British. House of Commons—a large employer of labour—said publicly, that he once exerted himself to prevent a licence being granted to a house on his estate, his aim being to prevent drunkenness among his workmen. He was sorry to slate that he " reckoned without his host," and llnit no other act of his life had caused him such bitter repentance. Had the licence been granted, the usual amount of drunkenness among his men would have followed, and the usual amount of privation among the women and children. The refusal of the licence had led to tippling in the houses of the men, and instead of drunkenness being mostly confined to the men, whole families, —men, women, and children, —had been totally demoralised by horns tippling. Doubtless the same result is produced by '.he same means wherever those restrictions are adopted. The absence of inebriates from the police cells on Saturday nights, and from the Courts on the Monday mornings by no means proves that the Sunday has been passed soberly. I think it impossible for any man who has watched the records of drunkenness in the public papers, and reflected on each case, to arrive at any other conclusion than that to close the public sotting rooms on a Sunday, does not curtail the weekly (7 days) quantity of grog sold; does lot keep the sot sober, but does introduce sotting into hundreds of homes where, but for this restriction, it would never be practised. Is any man insane enough to suppose glut- ' tonv can be cured by closing the restaurants, or that fornicationß can be cured by closing certain houses ? Nor will the closing of tip

pling and sotting shops cure drunkenness f no, not even were they closed from year's-enct to year's-end. Is it not a fact that the best whiskey is to be found in tho9e Auckland settlements where the spotless purity of the people will not tolerate a grog-sbop? 3nd whero there is nothing of which man is so grossly ignorant as of his own nature, —he learns enough of the nature of bis pig, his cow, his doe, and liig horse, to enable him to keep them in health. " Know thou thyself/ 1 ia a maxim be wholly ignores. Therefore, society crams itself into " chair-lumbered closets, just 12 feet by 9 feet, without drainage or \ entilation, closes the windows and doors, makes up the lire, turns on the gas, lights its pipe, puffs away, then kicks up a great demonstration at finding itself thirsty, gets drunk, turns teetotaller, and vents its rage on the publicans, aud its own victims. 5? a desire axists to make men sober, common sense must be brought to the work. The sot must be " seduced" from sotting, aud the tippler from tippling, by being led to understand and to part in rational and elevating pursuits, and by being made fit and capable of doing so ; and they must be taught that they cannot begin to do so while they confiue themselves in an unwholesome den —a thirst creator —nor while they use tobacco —a thirst creator—nor whilst Ibey neglect the bath, and so engender thirst.—l am, &.c. F. Waite.