COMPENSATION TO PUBLICANS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9888, 6 November 1893, Page 3

COMPENSATION TO PUBLICANS.

TO THE EDITOK. Sic, —I am pleased to-find that there iB at least one honest individual amongst those who do not patronise the dram shops in the person of " Justice," who suggests in yours of yesterday the raising of duty on spirits, wines, and ' beer, the additional amount to be pub aside to , form a compensation fund. I am afraid I' Justice" has nofc read the lessons of the past . in fchafc connection. I think, unless my memory fails me, ifc was in 1869 that, under the Gladstone Government, the last rise in duty took . place in Great Britain. The pretext for raising i the duty was to provide a fund for the purpose i of settling the vexed question of compensation i to publicans, the principal of which the Grand Old Man was then a staunch supporter. Where ■ is that fund now P and where are the G.O.Ms. principles ? Echo answers; Where ? The quesi tion then arises, are our colonial Governments or members of Parliament to be trusted any ■ more than our Imperial ones, or is it a wise policy to offer such incentives to smuggling and illicit distillation, as has already been done ? When the proposal was last made in our Parliament to raise the duty on spirits I i prognosticated a falliDg off in revenue, which : took place to the t-xtent of £8000 fche firsfc quarter after the rise, as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. There is no country in the world better adapted for carrying on the illegal practices I have named than New Zealand.—l am, &c, Dunedin, November 1. . John Goldee.