THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1884.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6935, 8 February 1884, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1884.

To-day is the day appointed | or «, nomination of candidates f or I? 8 Licensing Committees of the sev e „i licensing districts into which th'o of Auckland is divided. That interest of a kind is felt in this ceeding is not to be questioned • bm we cannot help regretting that the form in which that interest expresses it S ej) is not one that commends itself befitting a question of wide pa yf interest. It is probable that there iS no other question dividing parties which partakes in the treatment of it so m Dc i, of the objectionable features of erican politics, for unhappily it jj degenerated very much into a struck of caucuses, in which the general public are but invited to take an outside interest. We do not wonder at this on the part of the licensed victuallers for in their case the struggle become one virtually of self-preservation; but we do not hesitate to say that those concerned in reforming the drinkimr habits of the people habitually mil a grand opportunity of ventilating their principles and educating the public mind up to a more advanced stage in the regulation of the traffic in intoxicating drinks. Possibly the Good Templars, Blue Ribbon Army, and the other advocates of reform,'consider that caucus is only to be met by caucus, and that combination of those favourable to the drink traffic requires that those who are altogether opposed to it should similarly combine, and privately arrange a concerted plan of action, while the great body of the public are left out of the arrangements of both, and are only to be led up to the polling booths on the day"of election, and got to vote as personal predilections or the pressure from either side may incline them. This is hardly fair to the public, who may naturally feel that they ought to have some voice in the selection of citizens for candidature, instead of being treated as " dumb-driven cattle."

This might all do very well if there is never after to be any advance 011 this question, and if all parties are agreed that finality has been attained on the liquor traffic. In such case the very minor question of whether drinking bars should close at ten, eleven, or twelve at night, may be good enough to keep alive the distinction of parties, and show that Good Templarism has an existence still. But really we cannot help thinking that it is hardly worthy of the dignity of a great reforming party to not have something larger over which to contend; and fully confident are we that they fail in duty in not taking occasion as presented for seeking to educate the public mind in connection with their principles, and trying by open and vigorous agitation to enlist the people on their side. Further, it will lie generally conceded that, in thus arranging their candidates in private, they are doing much to thwart their own purposes • for the public being unmoved on the matter, having their attention but little directed to it, and consequently being largely indifferent to the whole aSair, if they do not resent a list being submitted them cat and dry, will at least be very likely to give their votes without a thought, and be subject to the temporary influences or the whim of the hour. But apart from the merits of the question, it is to be regretted that any of our great public questions should degenerate into what is little better than a struggle at intrigue, at which two rival coteries play in the dark, the outside public being simply left to be manipulated by electioneering agents. It is true that if this; question of ten versus eleven or twelve o'clock, as the. hour for shutting up the bars, is the only height to which the struggle rises, it is hardly worth while disturbing the peace of the people. It is said, and probably correctly, that the worst and most prevalent drunkenness is in the hours immediately preceding midnight; and if the lopping off of these two hours will not hasten the drinkers in their efforts to get mellow at an earlier period, and if they will not have the fun between eight and ten, which in other circumstances would be prolonged till midnight with a linked sweetness long drawn out, then will the change be a real gain to the welfare of the community. I fl the. absence, therefore, of any better object in the struggle, the shorteningoi the hours may be a gain to temperance; but the supporters of this view should bear in mind that their success must be complete in the city, or it will be attended with mischief. For if it I s partial, and if by the election of their candidates they have the bars shut up in one district of the city and not in the adjoining one, they will simply aggregate and intensify the evil. For example, if they shut the bars in Cijy East at ten o'clock, and they fail ' n City North and South, there will be simply an exodus of the drinkers to the other side of Queen-street; and while there will be no gain at all to temperance, but probably the contrary so much irritation will be caused y the unequal treatment of the hatekeepers—which will be all blamed the teetotallers —that public feeling will be sure to work itself up to ® prejudice of the cause which go° templars maintain. . Again, the objections preferred by tne licensed victuallers to the closing of 0 bars at ten o'clock are entirely hollow. If they say it will limit their sales ana do them an injury by depriving them of the best and most lucrative hours or the twenty-four, the position is m e gible, and a sound one as far as goes ; but when they set up the pn interest, and talk about steamers, 11 * coining in at night, and the tra\e being unable to find hotel acco ""! 1 dation, they know they are tal » idlv. For who wants them to shu P their hotels against belated traye e They can keep them practical yop all nfght for the reception of tra lers if they will, and belated trav can demand accommodation 1 , will not, so that the troub * £ the poor travellers need no tress them. It i 3 on y

they would have to shut at ten, so as to turn out people who ought at that hour to be at home and in bed. And even if a belated traveller arriving reared a something to soothe the internal troubles consequent on sea-sickness, or a "nightcap"to make his swimming head compose itself to slumber, we apprehend there is nothing to prevent him having his little wants supplied as a boarder at the hotel. The pretence of anxiety for the travellers is only pretence, and needs not enter into the question : for the movement, as everyone knows, is not to close the hotel as such, but to shut its drinking bar. There is another point in these nominations that strikes us as peculiar. On the one hand we find candidates nominated who are extreme teetotallers, opposed to the sale of alcoholic drinks as poison to soul and body, yet these if elected will.be expected, when called on by duty, to grant licenses for the sale of drink; on the other hand, we find the nominees, and to a certain extent the dependents, of brewers placed on the Licensing Bench to adjudicate on the propriety of granting licenses to their own houses. Indeed, it is not many months since public attention was a good deal exercised over a case in which nearly every member of the Licensing Court was subject to aspersion; as not being independent, certain of) their being indisputably connected with an interest under adjudication. In either of these cases it is impossible that decisions can be come to on their merits, and yet there are those who profess to be angry at anv insinuation of corruption in public life. It is really time that this question of the election to the Licensing Committees came into the hands of the public, instead of being manipulated by secret coteries, and until this occurs, and the public come to take a healthful interest in the matter, local option must continue to be as it is—a farce.