LIQUOR LAW REFORM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4215, 23 September 1874, Page 3

LIQUOR LAW REFORM.

EDITED BY THE HON. WILLIAM FOX, M.ILK. (The Editor of this journal is not responsible for the opinions herein expressed. The column is solely under the charge of its special Editor.] BELLAMY’S. The word “ Refreshments” has acquired a technical sense. • Formerly a cup of tea or coffee; a luncheon of cold meat; an oyster supper; ices, lemonade, sandwiches, fruit, or the like, were as often understood as not by this tovm. But anj’ftno wko liob tho fviwiUl-^ to read the debates on the Liquor Law which, have occurred during the hist session of the Imperial Parliament (and which the London Times remarks occupied nearly half of the session), will have ohsex-ved that the terra refreshment has got to be appropriated, almost if not exclusively, to the consumption of alcoholic liquors ; as if nothing would “refresh” a man’s fainting nature, whether at five iu the morning, five in the afternoon, or twelve at night, except some intoxicating bevex-age. In the debates referred to, when an honorable member speaks of “refreshments” he invariably means alcohol in some shape or other. 1 When he argues that public-houses should be open at five in the morning, to enable the laboring man to get “ refreshments ” before going to his -work, he never means a decent breakfast, or a cup of hot coffee or chocolate, hut beer, or gin, or other form of alcoholic drink. When the necessity of keeping the public-hoxx.se open for the honci fide tx*aveller is urged, the b.f.t. is supposed ' never to refresh himself with any other thing than alcoholic liquors; it is the bar and not the kitchen which is to be kept open in order that he may obtain the “ refreshment ” he needs, AVe protest against this monopoly of the word. It is on a par with the phrase “ licensed victualler,” which is used to give dignity to the keeper of the shanty in Dead Man’s Gully, equally with the landlord of a hotel in Cavendish Square ; though the only victuals sold may be adnltei'ated rum, or some other vile alcoholic compound. “Refreshments sold here by Jonathan Bung, licensed victualler.” That means, as often as not, “ bad spirits sold and no other victuals whatever.” AATxy this bad spirits, which consign the victim to the gutter or the lock-up, should be called “ refreshments ” par excellence, and why Mr. Jonathan Bung should be styled a “ victualler ” par excellence, altogether baffles our comprehension. Till a very recent period almost every Legislature in Great Britain, the United States, and the Colonies had its refreshment-room, attached to the Legislative Chamber, or under the same roof, and not very far off. These places are known by the designation of “ Bellamy’s,” from the name of the person who first kept the establishment attached to the Imperial House of Paidiament. AATxat passes on the floor of the Houses of Legislation is now pi-etty well open everywhere to the eye of the public ; hut what passes at Bellamy’s is not, and if weshould pretend to reveal its mystei-ies we might find ourselves called to the bar of the House for ahi-each of pi-ivilege—a very different thing, we suspect from being invited to the bar at Bellamy’s. AATiat sort of refreshments are fm-nished to members to enable them to pei-form their arduous duties we do not pretend to know. Cold meat and tea and coffee may be among them, hut w-e believe alcoholic refreshments are not excluded. The hon. member for Newton, during the late debate on the Licensing Bill in our Parliament, expressed his belief that “it would be a good thing if Bellamy’s were abolished.” It couldn’t be that he thought hen. members ate too much cold beef or drank too many cups of Bohea. Later in the same evening an hon. member in a white tie and conspicuous shii’t-front, who had evidently been dining out, made an exhibition of himself, which provoked Mr. Pox to remark, “that if the member for Newton would seriously propose that Bellamy’s should be closed he would certainly support him.” This perhaps indicates what sort of refreshments the member for Newton imagined to be consumed at Bellamy’s. But abolish Bellamy’s ! was ever anyone mad enough to propose such a thing 1 Yes, it was proposed once by Mr. Carlton, member for the Bay of Islands, but he. failed to find a supporter. However, it seems that fanatics have been ■found fanatical enough to do it elsewhere—at least to propose, and not only to px-opose, hut to carry the proposal that alcoholic refreshments shall not be sold at Bellamy’s. The United States Congress at Washington, some two or three years ago, decided to exclude intoxicating dinnk from the precincts of the Capitol ; and by last mail we have news that the Legislature of the Dominion of Canada has arrived at the same conclusion. AVe clip the following from the columns of an English paper SALE OP DRINKS IN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES.. An excellent example to our own Houses of Parliament has just been set in our Dominion of Canada. Many a speech has been made or spoiled, many a vote lost or given, through the influence of what has been politely _ called a “ heated imagination and the destinies of our empire may some day be affected very seriously by the consumption of liquor on the premises. In the Dominion House of Commons, at Ottawa, on. the Ist Inst., hXr. omsnolm movetl that' Mr. Speaker be requested to give an order prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors within the precincts of the House. The motion was opposed by several members, hut supported by more, and finally was carried. The Speaker promised that he would endeavor, as far as possible, to enforce the motion of prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors in the House most rigidly. The Montreal Witness of April 2, made the following comment on the affair ; —“ Our now’ Parliament has begun well. The almost entire unanimity with which the House of Commons last night decreed the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors within its precincts will be hailed as a most encouraging proof of the progress of the temperance cause in all quarters. In the senatorial precincts, the sale of liquor had already ceased. The hope is that feeling how good it is to remove completely all temptations to partake of the intoxicating cup within their own House, our legislators will he led to consider what an immense benefit it would he if the prohibition were extended to the entire country. There may not be wanting those who, like Mr. Cauchon, will argue that men will continue to drink on the sly; or, who, Tike Mr. Buuster, of Vancouver, British Columbia—who is a brewer by trade—will cry out that the liberty of the subject is invaded. What is needed, is to place the ban and stigma of the law upon a traffic that everyone, teetotaller or not, now admits is dealing forth widespread ruin among the people. The use of intoxicating liquor it may he difficult to entirely eradicate; hut, if its votaries are driven to seek for it in holes and corners, where, like obscure vice, it may find a lurking-place, the cause of morality and sobriety will he incalculably the gainer ; for it is the legal and social countenance given to the custom that constitutes its chief source of danger.”