INNKEEPER'S RESTRICTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 2906, 22 May 1873, Page 6 (Supplement)

INNKEEPER'S RESTRICTIONS.

To the Editor of the Herald. Sie, —In your issue of tho 16th instant appears a letter signed F. Waite upon "Innkeeper's .Restrictions." Will you kindle allow space in your columns in answer to bis unwarrantable assertions, the tenor of which is that restricting the sale of intoxicants increases drunkenness. If ever man " reckoned without his host" surely it in F. Waite upon this question. Common sense asserts and experience proves the opposite to be the result. He declaims ugainse restriction and prohibition, and asserts that if tippling shops were abolished men would drink themselves drunken in the bosom of their families, and that through its influence the entire family circle wouldbe drawn into this whirlpool of moral degradation. Happy Auckland, when men can only drink the liquors wives will brew ! our police shall be idle, and the beuch less to do ; our churches be better attended, and our schools receive support j wives and mothers rejoice, and little ones be glad. As proof I refer F. "Waite to Bessbrook in Ireland, Saltaire in Yorkshire, England, and those parts of America which enjoy restrictive or prohibitory liquor laws. Let him read the Alliance Iscivs for the past twelvemonths, and if he does not change his mind he has no mind to change. True, more drunkards aro brought before tho bench on Monday than any other day ; but tliat does not prove that they brew and drink themselves drunken at home. Our Licensing Act is broken with impunity by the majority of the tippling shopkeepers. Let a vigilance committee be formed to enforce the law we now have, and tho result will be less drunkenness on Sunday tban any other day. Friends of temperance, be not disheartened ; push on for a Permissive Bill ; compel every man who drinks to brew, and your praiseworthy efforts shallbo rewarded.—l am, & c . } W. Edwahds.