LIQUOR LAW REFORM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4187, 21 August 1874, Page 3

LIQUOR LAW REFORM.

EDITED BY THE HON. WILLIAM FOX, M.H.K. [The Editor of this journal is not responsible for the opinions herein expressed. The column is solely under the charge of its special Editor.] THE SIAMESE TWINS. The Siamese Twins are dead. We saw them some thirty-five years ago at Birmingham ; two individual men—perfect in all then- parts, but linked together by a band of flesh a hand's breath wide, from chest to chest. They made much money by exhibiting themselves ; then they went to America, and married two sisters, became fathers of two families, and owners of two prosperous farms. At last one of them died. The sudden shock killed the other also. Their story had, however, a horror in it. One of the two, Eng, was a sober man. The other, Chang, became a drunkard. We have heard of the frightful cruelty inflicted on Christian Martyrs by fastening the living, man to a dead corpse. The condition of Eng, bound by an indissoluble link to his drunken brother Chang, must have been more-dreadful still. It makes one shudder to think of it.

And yet there are thousands around us undergoing the like martyrdom. Thousands of wives iudissolubly bound, to drunken husbands ; thousands of children bound to drunken parents; and all the sober part of society bound in a hundred relations of nationality and social life, to the habitual victim of strong drink. A writer in an English periodical carries on the parallel as follows :

Eng could not get quit of Chang. The only chance for the sober brother was to keep or make his brother sober too. This was the only path open to him ; the line on which all his efforts should have been put forth. He is his brother's keeper; and if, through neglect or weakness, he fail to keep his brother, that brother unkept will make life more terrible to him than the Tartarus of the poets, or the furgatory of the priests. I see, as in a dream, society persoualod, not as one but as two ; and these two bound together by a link that is their life. The intemperate hang upon the sober ; the sober cannot shake Ms inebriate brother off, as Paul shook the viper from his hand. If tho sober man do not keep his brother sober, his own life. is necessarily wretched. The physical union of the Siamese brothers exhibits an enacted parable before the world, in which the world might learn how man is knit to man in social and moral bonds that are mighty in their effects and indissoluble in their nature. The drunken portion of the nation hang a dead weight on the sober portion. Seven millions sterling consumed yearly in strong drink by the three millions who inhabit Scotland, - represent a' weight like a millstone round the neck of a strong swimmer, keeping liim always low and struggling, threatening one day to submerge him altogether. The saddest feature of the case is, that Eng has become so much accustomed to Chang's inebriety, that he makes scarcely any exertion to abate the 'nuisance. A strange apathy pervades the community in regard to its greatest enemy. Afore thought is given to the King of Ashantee, and how to protect our territories from his ravages, than to the pestilence of drink that is devastating our hearths and homes. Among the upper and political classes, there is a childish and vulgar impatience, not with the destroyer, but with all who venture to complain of his* ravages. Men who aspire to legislate and govern, have seldom anything better to say on the subject than the old worn-out fallacy, "You cannot make the people sober by Act of Parliament." In the meantime, while, by high duties and "the exaction of a license, some show of restricting the trade is made, the trade is almost practically unrestricted. Dramshops are sown broadcast over the land, invariably thickest where the population, reduced and wasted by drink, have least strength to resist temptation. Justices, not appointed by the people, control the administration of the licenses. Contrary to the rule in all other departments of justice, canvassers for a favorable judgment are privately admitted ; and a butler out of place, who can induce his former master to take his seat on the Bench on the licensing day, may obtain the license for his own profit, to the manifest detriment of the neighborhood. The whole apparatus smells rank. Why should not the control of that which so closely concerns the" people, be placed in the hands of the people ? Are we, who elect our legislators and our school-boards, not fit to choose our own publicans ; and to determine how many there shall be, or whether, for that part of it, there shall be any at all?"

The tone assumed, and the political influence exerted by those who conduct the drink traffic, for their own profit, may well make the nation ashamed. We seem to be not very far from the brink of the question, Do the publicans belong to the nation, or the nation to the publicans ? The movement by women against the traffic in some of the American States, notorious, although of recent origin, is well worthy of the attention of statesmen and patriots. The effort is unique in its nature and its methods. It is conducted exclusively by women. The agents are not the lowest but the highest of the community in position and character. Their means are moral only, but they have assumed hitherto unprecedented forms, and exerted an amazing influence. They meet in thousands in the churches for prayer and consultation. Thence they issue in bands of twenties or hundreds to the various liquor shops. Arrived in front of. the whisky store, the enemies' fort, which these Amazons mean to storm and demolish, they gently request permission 'to enter the house. Some of the publicans refuse, but most grant permission. If admitted, the ladies kneel and pray for the publican, and for his immediate deliverance from his dangerous employment. Prayers, hymns, and exhortations alternate till the day is done, or the publican yields. Many have voluntarily closed their doors, signed the pledge, and emptied their barrels in the gutter. If they are not admitted, the ladies never use violence. They erect a small shanty, similar to the timber tent that was formerly used at sacramental assemblages in Scotland, and from it, relieving each other, preach and pray the whole day long for the benefit of the publican and his customers. Some af the more courageous dealers have taken the case into the law courts: and the question is now pending whether the preaching-tent opposite the trader's door constitutes a'nuisance in the eye of the law. AVc have mentioned this singular phenomenon, not for the purpose of examining its principles or methods, in order to determine whether it deserves praise or blame. "We leave all these points till the case be farther ripened ; we prefer to wait and see whereunto this thing will grow. There is one aspect of the case on which a judgment may now be safely formed, and to that aspect, in the meantime, we confine our view'. This eccentric and abnormal outburst, by persons of the gentler sex, and confessedly of the purest character, proves the existence of an intolerable grievance, which the ordinary administration of the Government fails to remove. It is quite easy to demonstrate that there is freedom in the United States, that the people elect the law-makers, that the laws are, on the whole, purely administered. The machinery of a civilised government goes regularly on, and the subjects ought to seek the removal of abuses through the constitutional channel. All true; yet he is a blind legislator who would refuse to heed such a spontaneous and eager outbreak. Warned by the symptoms of a deluge, let him g-- back quickly to the legislative halls, and, in concert with his fellows, find constitutional means of reaching'that hidden sore which threatens the dissolution of society. Do not say that the women's effort is a foolish masi querade—an American whim, witJiout adequate cause. As well say that Vesuvius takes to belching out fire and ashes when there is no combustion in the bowels of the earth beneath. The mountain is composed of heavy matter, kept low and sober by the law of gravity. It would not take to dancing if it could help it. The subterranean explosion compels it to leap up. The matrons and maids that sweeten the homes of Ohio do not go into these madcap mananrvres without a cause. If they arc mad, it is oppression that has made them mad ; and the business of a statesman is with the cause of the outburst. All is according to law, no doubt; but your law will not restore to these women their lost husbands and brothers—lost by the. enticements of the bar-room. If the law cannot help them, these women, driven to despair, will help themselves in spite of it.