OUR LICENSING LAWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 360, 4 January 1879, Page 8

OUR LICENSING LAWS.

TO THE EOITOR OF THE NEW ZKALAND MAIL. Sir,—-Most people are agreed that the liquor traffic, or drunkenness, is the parent of the greatest and most terrihle evils that afflict society. I for one am of opinion that these evils cannot well be exaggerated, as the curse does not end with the present inebriates, but is transmitted to their offspring in the form of weakened mental, moral, and physical constitutions. Yet there is a great diversity of opinion as to the best means of suppressing it. Various are the kinds of nostrums put forward for the purpose. I, too, have my plan, which I will take the liberty of placing before the public, not that there is anything new in it, but because I think it embraces principles which are too often lost sight of in our attempts to deal with the subject. While I accept the general proposition that you cannot make men moral or sober by legislation, I ' maintain that legislation may be converted into a great remedial machine in lessening the crime and misery which is the daily and natural outcome of indulging too freely in the intoxicating draught ; and in my opinion one of the reasons whv more has not been in this direction is the violent and impracticable remedies put forward by those who are most anxious for its suppression—many of whom can see no good in any scheme hut the entire abolition of the trade—forgetting or ignoring the power that is behind the throne of the beer cask, and disgusting the advocates for more moderate and practicable measures, hence the state of chaos in which our licensing laws and their administration remain. As a remedy or palliation of this evil (however paradoxical it may appear) T would not suggest an attempt bv direct legislation to limit the number of licenced houses, but would restrict the number by some such provisions as the following : Ist. No license should be granted to any house that did not contain certain specified accommodation for the comfort and convenience of those who from choice or necessity wished to avail themselves of it. 2nd. As a high standarol of accommodation would reduce the number of licensed houses so it would increase the monopoly of the traffic, which shonl t be met by an increase of the license fee ; (3rd) that proper officers be appointed for their inspection, such inspection to extend to the details of accommodation (as it is notorious that the accommodat : on in some of our large hotels is simply execrable) ; (4th) that the liquors sold should be placed under the strictest supervision (as the so called good liquor, everyone knows, is bad enough); (sth) thit the-punishment for sly grog-selling should be imprisonment instead of a monev fine, as at present, as it is well known that the profits of ono night's debauch often far exceed in amount the heaviest fine imposed. The suppression of sly grog selling and low drinking shop 3, where filth and vice reign supreme, would not only protect the more respectable hotel keeper?, but yreatly lessen the crime and misery ari-ing from drunkenn«ss. It is not in our respectable and well-conducted hotels, hut in these houses where liquors of the most poisonous kind are sold, and drunkenness and other nameless vices reign r impant. It is principally from those dens that our gaols and lunatic asylums are supplied with the victims of drink. Our laws against sly grog selling and adulterated liquors are far too lax, while th-: administration of existing laws i 3 most inefficient and contemptible. To onr_ philanthropists who are waging war against the monster evil of intemperance I would say no longer waste your energies in attempting the impossible, but turn your attentiou to the practical.—l am, &c, Total Abstainer.