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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 14 September 1880, Page 2

Tiie prosecutions of the publicans yesterday for selling adulterated spirits are instructive in many ways. They show that the reduction of spirits is universally practised by publicans ; that it is not good for people to drink spirits fully up to proof ; that at Home, in Victoria, and other placea, there are fixed standards down to which vendors of spirits are permitted to reduce them; that in this Colony no such standard is fixed ; and that no matter to what trifling extent the liquor may be reduced, the seller is guilty of a breach of the Act, even though lie may not in the slightest degree be responsible for the adulteration. All these points were clearly brought out duripg the hearing of the case. The defendants freely and honestly admitted that it was customary to reduce spirits, and the Bench, counsel, and defendants all agreed that the reduction of spirits was necessary for the public good; but all were forced to admit that, in the majority of cases before the Court, the adulteration' was performed in a very haphazard manner, though it wa3 pleasing to find that writer only was used. Despite the agreement of all parties as to the necessity for reducing hpirjts below proof, the Magistrate had no opticn but to inflict penalties, for the Act wa3 fiilenfc a? to the degree to which spirits might be reduced, and, therefore, the letter, if not the spirit, of the Jsw had been infringed. Taking it for granted that it is desirable 1 from a public point of view to reduce spirits to some degree below pr.o.of, we have forced upon us the necessity for an amendment of the Act. It is true that, j is a rule, Magistrates, when cones come; before them, supply the omission of Parliament, and fix standards according to their particular ideas of what is right; but it i 3 questionable whether their ictiom j|» this respect are strictly admissible. 'fhe law, though evidently Faulty, is clear jupnn the point, and he man who adds one per c&nfc- of water :o his spirits is equally aa gu/lty us :he less scrupulous man who dilutes his jrog by the addition of 30, per cent, of vaterl Herein lies a great wrong, but ono , >y do means greater than that which is in-

flicted upon any person having no guilty knowledge of the adulteration of his liquors. It is true, as Mr. Parker pointed out that, under the Act, the seller may escape all responsibility for the dilution of his liquors by making a public declaration that his spirits are adulterated. It is, however, forming an erroneous estimate of human nature to suppose that ,any publican would publicly notify that he watered his liquor. Any such announcement would at once drive away his customers, but he transgresses the law of the land if he does what in other countries is recognised as perfectly legitimate and legal. In two very essential points, then, the Act requires amendment. It is impolitic that the fixing of a standard strength of liquors should be imposed from necessity upon Magistrates, and it is decidedly unjust that any vendor should be held responsible for the actions of another. We have seen that it is desirable that liquor should be reduced in strength, and we fully recognise the fact that, were the publicans to comply with the strict letter of the law, and sell proof spirits, drunkenness would be considerably increased and great injury done to the constitutions of licfuordrinkers. Some may say, "Let the drinkers add the water themselves." The answer to this is, that there are hundreds of men who would scorn to " spoil good liquor by the addition of water," and that as' it ia generally recognised that the drinking of proof spirits js injurious, it is the duty of our law-makers clearly to state the minimum strength at which liquor should be sold. What that strength should be—whether the standard of 25 per cent, below proof of Victoria, accepted by Mr. Watt, or the standard of 15 per cent, bpjpw proof adopted by Mr. Parker, or some intervening stapdard, should be fixed—we leave to those bettep versed ip those matters to deterpiine. Some standard is necessary, alike in justice to the pijblipans and the public, and the law should clearly aetine tljat gtancLard.