BOTTLE LICENSES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12607, 10 March 1903, Page 6

BOTTLE LICENSES.

TO THE .EDITOR, i Sik,—Whatever. differences of opinion there may bo as to hot-els, I believe there is very little'difference-of opinion as to tlic bottle license,' for to it is duo in groat measure the terrible increase of drunkenness among women. A respectable woman would not on any account bo seen going into a hotel to get drink. When she has cccscd to care for that sho has ceased to bo rc9pcctable. • Sho has lost caste and character, and has gone far down in drink and sin. But it is so easy to order it from the grocer's! so safe and secret, as she thinks. But the grocsr knows it, and gossips of it confidentially among his friends. And the grocer's boy knows it, and gossips of it unoonfidentin-lly among_ his chums. And tho servant- girl knows it, and gossips of it among her's. And half tho town knows it, perhaps, be-foro the husband's eyes aro opened to the startling truth that his wife ! has " taken to drink." By-thc-way, I wonder how many innocent girls have learned to be drunknrds and been swept out upon tho streets through the mistress always having drink in the house? I wonder how many children have learned to -tasto and sip and drink on the sly till they became confirmed and hopeless drunkards through their mother having it constantly in the house before them? And with women who do not keop servants, and do their own "ordering," I wonder how much of the monthly bills which so astonish ihe husbands is mado up of bottles? j "Don't put it -down ; my husband wouldn't j like it; call it tea"—sugar, candles, kero- j sene, otc. And the husband, though he himself may go in and out of liotols, and j " take his glass," does'nt caro to go back J to a neglected, homeless home and find his . wife lying about, on bed or sofa, stupid, I silly, drunk. Many a man iii| this city even I lias had reason to curse the bottle license, j Many a servant girl has fiad reason to i curse the bottle liccnsc, and many a young • son and daughter has had reason to curse j tho bottle license. Ayo 1 and many a lost j wifo and mother has had bitter cause to ! curso tho bottle license—that serpent on the hearth! Lot us volo' it out. Why should Otago be cursed with it more than the rrst of New ! Zealand? It:is in our hands, and if we don't! uso our power to vote it out tho responsibility of the curse will rest upon us for ever, j I am, etc., Augus. -