LIQUOR LAW REFORM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4217, 25 September 1874, Page 3

LIQUOR LAW REFORM.

EDITED BY THE HON. ‘WILLIAM FOX, ILH.IL fThc Editor of this journal is not responsible for the opinions herein The column is solely under the charge of its special Editor.] THE EXTENT OE DRINKING HABITS. During the discussions on the Licensing Bill of last session nothing was more evident than that Mr. Vogel had never studied the subject. The arguments he used in assailing Mr. Box’s positions, or maintaining his own, were almost without exception the old stock* fallacies of the publicans’ advocate, which have been answered hundreds, nay thousands, of times, and which are too transparent to deceive even a Band of Hope boy. One, however, we think, was thoroughly original ; and it had the merit of plausibility, though it was, when examined, as hollow and groundless as the rest. It was his assertion that the extent of drunkenness is greatly exaggerated by the Liquor Law Reformers, which he supported by the ingenious,' but shallow, argument that if one goes to any part of New Zealand probably not .five out of any hundred persons one meets have ever been drunk in their lives, and not one would be a confirmed drunkard. This was received with great applause by the advocates of our drinking customs; yet how weak it is. The reply was very easy, and was given by Mr. Eox. If you want to know the extent of intoxication and the drinking habits of the people go to those places where you are likely to meet with those who indulge in them. It is not the drunkard, or habitual hard drinker, whom you will meet when you “take your walks abroad,’’ in the streets, the suburbs, or the parks. But look iu at those manufactories of drunkards—-the bars and parlors of public-houses between eight and twelve in the evening; visit the watchhouse of a Saturday night; inspect the gaols and lunatic asylums, nine-tenths of whose inmates have been brought there through strong drink; consult the calendars of the Supreme Court and the police sheets of the Resident Magistrate’s Court* ; be yourself a large employer of labor; make yourself acquainted with the cases which come under the notice of the Benevolent Society; open your ears to the wail of broken down wives, and your eyes to the condition of neglected and uneducated children; and you will find in our times at all events a very different percentage than either 5 or 1. A much more careful and unprejudiced inquirer than Mr. Vogel on this question, Mr. Taine, a .Frenchman, and not a teetotaller, in his admirable “ Notes bn England,” over and over again alludes to the drunken habits of the English people. In one place he writes thus; ful. During three days I have twice visited Chelsea, and each time have seen men lying in the gutters dead drunk. A philanthropic clergyman tells mo that out of every ten workmen eight are drunkards. They get high wages ; when once they have paid for their provisions, they have a drinking bout of three or four days’ duration, imbibing gin, brandy and water, and other strong liquors. The intoxication from these spirits stupify a man, rendering him melancholy and often mad. Hence the prevalence of_ delirium tremens and other alcoholic maladies. London had in 1848, eleven thousand sellers of spirits, and only four* thousand butchers and bakers. Two hundred and sixty thousand persons entered fourteen gin palaces every week,” and so on. Our friends—the ladies of Dundee, whose action we referred to not long ago, have been taking some pains to ascertain the condition of their “bonny city” in the matter. They did not, like Mr. Vogel in Ids simplicity, betake themselves to a walk in the fields for the study of their subject, nor trust to what they see on the surface, but they went where they were likely to learn more about it—to the Commissioner of I’olico ; and here is a record of a little of what they sa%v as recorded by themselves. “Several members of the union,along with two police inspectors, visited the neighborhoods of a number , of, the public-houses on Saturday night. The multitudes of men, women, and children, thronging these publichouses was prodigious. Husbands and wives coming out scarcely able to stand, trying to steady one another. The saddest sight of all, was the vast number of young men and women intoxicated. The police affirm that this is largely on the increase. In some streets, scarcely a young man was to be seen who was not, more or less, under the influence of drink. And this was not confined to the lower classes; many a gentleman’s eon went home intoxicated on Saturday night. They were seen staggering out of certain places, which, unless the gentlemen of Dundee endeavored to put clown, they will pay dearly for not doing so in the ruin of many of their sons. Another thing the police say, and which is painfully apparent, is that the drinking among women is shamefully increasing. They go in droves, young and old, unblushingly into public-houses, and come out staggering drunk. Their training with the licensed grocers explain this. Many begin with the grocer who would have been ashamed to begin, though they aro not to end, with the publican. If. the working-men in Dundee wish to have sober wives, they must unite as one man to demand the grocers’ licenses to bo taken from them. One said a few days since, that he had five helpless children, and a woman that neither could ho called wife nor mother—a drunkard—to neglect and abuse them. Towards 12 o’clock, cabs were Seen at some of the public-house doors. Upon inquiry, it was'told these were to take the publicans and their money-hags home. One might well shudder at the thought of these money-bags, and what they wore the price of. If the publicans were driven to comfortable homes, such was not the case with their customers. Towards one o’clock the ladies accompanied the police to a number of houses that could not be called, homes, Shouts, proceeded from one door, which when opened there was found an , old grey-haired man, raging drunk, with a drunk daughter who had been dragging.him: through the house by the hair of the head. In an inner room there was lying a man dead drunk. Many houses were visited, and drunk men and women were found inevery one of them without exception. . ... 1 . The Police Office was visited past midnight, and how dreadful it was to see men, created in God’s image, lying in these colls like dead cattle, if not wildly excited. . One poor young man, well dressed, had to be turned round and his necktie loosed in case of beiug suffocated. The number of women thrust into their cells generally exceeds that’of the'men. One inspector said lie frequently brought in himself between sixty and seventy, drunk men and women on a Saturday night. The pay mghta

are always the worst. The police to a man affirmed that drink gives them all their occupation. It was remarked that one could not witness such scenes without their producing'—let. An utter abhorrence at drink itself ; 2nd. "Without tile soul beiug fired with righteous indignation at the whole drink system ; 3rd. Without amazement at such murderouswork being allowed to be carried on in a Christian civilised land, and all under the protection of law ; and 4th. Without the firm conviction that until this drink traffic (which is like a. mighty millstone around the necks of the people, holding them down in the mire of he removed it is utter folly to speak of raising the people. Let those who talk of educating and improving them and moderating their appetites, try it, and they will find that the drink traffic has a power in it that defies them to do it. Nothing could be plainer than the faetthat the temptations must be removed if the people are to he saved. The sacrifice must be made either of the drink or the people. “ By the kind permission of the Superintendent of Police, the police cells had been visited by members of the union on Sabbath morning. Saturday having been pay-day all the cells were, full, numbers besides having been locked up in the branch office in the Scouringburn—the whole, however, as the police remavlced, being hut a specimen of multitudes in as deplorable a condition throughout the town. Some of the police said that the office on Saturday night was like a menagerie of wild animals. The shouts and yells proceeding from the cells and the blasphemous language were simply indescribable. On Sabbath morning many of the prisoners were still in a drunken stupor, but some were on their feet and capable of being talked with. The scenes presented by these cells were fitted deeply to touch the hardest heart. Young lads, some of them well-dressed, were there, and men of all ages. Women, old and young, were found—one the mother of seven children, another of five, another had an infant three mouths old. How affecting the thought of these poor children. and how many children were no better off though they had their drunken mothers beside them instead of in the police cells. Some of the women were weeping from sheer misery. The prisoners were all conversed with. Their deplorable condition was spoken of, and how but for drink they might all have been in comfortable houses on that Sabbath morning, prepaiung with their families to join in the services of God’s house. Some listened with much interest. The police expressed much surprise that not a rude word was uttered. The question was ashed at each cell , * Would it not he a great blessing to you if these public-houses were swept away 1 * With the utmost eagerness, they said they only wished they were. Some wished they were at the bottom of the sea; some that they were a hundred miles out of their road. They were told that the ladies met every Monday evening to pray to God for their removal, and that they intended to urge upon the working-men | to unite to put them down. They listened •with evident interest, and thought it would be a i gude job.* Some of the women said, if they go pub of prison by Monday night, they would come to the meeting. To have ashed these miserable creatures to promise only to drink in moderation for the future, would have been like mocking them; but the idea of the temptation being taken out of their way, they seemed to grasp at. It was stated that more than £2OO a month are paid iu fines by the prisoners —all hard-earned money—in addition to what is spent in the pxxblic-houses,— Dundee Advertiser It maybe said that Mr. Vogel “takes his walks abroad ” in New Zealand, and not iu Dundee, and that the inebriety of the latter is no test of the inebriety of the former. All we need say in reply is, that the average consumption of alcoholic liquors in New Zealand per head is about twice that of the population of Great Britain ; that, according to Judge Gresson, the suppression of crime in this Colony, which arises almost entirely out of drinking habits, costs £BO,OOO a year; that our gaols and asylums are as full in proportion to the population as those of the old country, that a large part of our population is but recently from the old country and bring their habits along with them; that in every town and village the most prominent and apparently most prosperous business is that of the publichouse; that the proportion of public-houses to the population is quite as great as in Great Britain, while there is probably moro sly grogselling; these facts are sufficient reply to the argument, if it should be offered, that the statistics of Great Britain have no application here. We are at least as great drinkers. There may be less squalor and misery apparent to the eye, but the waste of life, of force, and of means, are at least fis great here as in the old country.