THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1884.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6948, 23 February 1884, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1884.

To-mokrow will be Sunday—the first Sunday in Auckland under the regime of Temperance Licensing Committees, who have been commanded by tho people, speaking through the ballot-box, to put a summary stop to Sunday trading in intoxicating drinks. There are many hotels in Auckland that have no liquor whatever Bold on Sunday, except such as is lawfully supplied to resident boarders. To these the alteration will make no difference. Thoro are many hotels in Auckland, under a certain friendly compulsion to supply liquor to their weekday customers, who drop casually in to have their tot on Sunday. To many of the proprietors of this class the change to absolute prevention will be greeted with genuine satisfaction. They have never desired to make a profit by Sundty trading, and the sales have kept them or their bar-tenders shut up, when they would have been gladly with their families resting, or at church, or enjoying the pure air of heaven. We know that these will be' glad' of the freedom which will be given by the stringent application of this law, and the excuse it will give them for declining to eorve a customer without giviDg him offence. To all these, we fnel confident the operations under the new rigiine. will be neither prying nor intrußive. >'■:■;'■. ■^- ;, But.there ; .'ijj''"a.:dißa of hotels which are known,t6 do: a. :roaring trade on Sunday, who do it wilfully, defiantly, and with the object .merely .cif gain. To these it may be as well that they know that to-morrow their trading ceases; .. We are aware that it has been said that these cannot be prevented from, .trading • that it is activity of the /police and severity of the Magistrate, latntiioiijeither; tone or the other in the Licensing? Committee, that are requisite to. put aViatop td : Sunday trading. Let noDodydecei'se himself with this. Neither police nor Magistrate has anything to do Cyvithilit: . Theyimey both go to bed now, so far'aa'anyf; necessity for them exists iii' suppressing: -'.Sunday trading. No longer" needv''the policeman go in by the. : front ■?.;ddor,' while at a signal from the watchman, the customers fly out at:the'rearijior thrust the tumblers into their pockets and look innocent, and jibe at the policeman because he cannot swear he;.saw them actually drinking, or the barman serving them. Forty or fifty people in a couple of hours on a Sunday atternoon have 1 : been counted entering and leaving such; lawrdefying establishments, and the i police -and : law were powerless to convict, and without conviction the Licensing (Committees-:did not feel compelled to withhold a'license. Those that have transgressed inTthis way in tne P* 81 we confidentially .recommend to not transgress any morel 1 It requires no conviction necesearily to the withholding of a license. That is absolutely: within!the,discretion of the Licensing Bench; Vand though we have a certainty that they will never even think of using'it vexatiously against any [ one of the fairly conducted ; hotels,: we hare

not the smallest our belief that tbeywin nseit V s *"*** »gam ßt trading ia carried on i n J£'? h S «>d»y pudent defiance of the *** "^ Thewordeof the 75th section , Licensing Act are theue.and _ ft ° f «>» recommend every Snndav-tradin can to carefully, clip thlm 0^ 8 f article and paste them np ? ""« The L lceM!ng Committee B fi S^ : tter </wcrei,o,iiu- granting n??"** any certificate for 'any desetinr license, and shall notid ,S of ] the same merely because the requi?, 8r * ot;? of the law as to accorntnoda i? ent « personal fitness of the a™"" ot fulfilled, unless in thttr a& **» a neae.sity for thi public hons, or " " establishment lor tne sale of mtnr- er liquors for which application- iTTT' we venture to eay without anv h t , ' that in the case- of a p^fa" ,oo in which forty or fifty peoM e hons9 Been going in and out i£ a ira of hours of a Sunday aftem C ° Upl9 will be taken for «rJted tCV< are not going into that bar parl oar f ' prayer meeting, and that the Wn .Committee will find " that in their there u no necessity for that rX° a house>.» The Lansing C omraitte P e not be required to siate their ntk reasons or to have the e»id en l U " any policeman. Let them aitnull k assured in their own minds that L nH trading 13 carried on, and whenT 7 application for the renewal of that he comes up, they may eiraply SB y „ their opinion there is no neceseitr /" that public-house." We are thus eirl as te the state u f the law and the D 0 5,„ of Sunday-trading public-honse, "' T the new reyimc, so that there ra ay u. mieunderetanciuig and no surprise a a without enjoying the confidence, or'kno mg what may be the iutentio'sc o f t T cew Licensing Committees, weditinct] 8 express our opinion that the man vrh sells a glass of grog in Auckland i o ° morrow, or during any other Sunday m the next twelve months, does s,o a t th peril of his license, and not hu ox* licQLse merely, but the liconse of the fearlding for oil time to come. We are very far from saying w tlu« that thore is the smallest ruk to any decently-conducted hotel. We believe on the contrary, from what we hari heard frequently expressed, that it be the endeavour of the Licensing Committees to deal with the utmost consider. ation and respect and kindness in their relations with every oue of the wellconducted hotels ;',' and that in doing w they will strengthen their poeition for dealing mercilessly with the tranjgreasot • that in truth they meau at once to be a terror to evildoers and a pra«e to them that do well. To-morrow, therefore will be the first Sunday under the new regime, and it will be interesting to watch the result.