THE PELORUS GUARDIAN and Miners’ Advocate. TUESDAY, 24th AUGUST, 1909. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 20, Issue 67, 24 August 1909, Page 4

THE PELORUS GUARDIAN and Miners’ Advocate. TUESDAY, 24th AUGUST, 1909. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The future of the public house is a problem of great social

Grog-shops or Clubs ?

interest—in England, just as in Australia and New Zealand.

In “ The Nineteenth Century ” Mr Edwyn Barclay discusses the question: Is the public house to be, as Mr LloydGeorge recently put it, in his Budget speech, “an establishment which lives and thrives on mere swindling and tippling?” Or should we endeavour to make it, what the bulk of its frequenters undoubtedly want, a comfortable club, for rest and refreshment ? Mr Barclay says that there are large classes of the population who are inadequately housed and need some place to meefc v in, where they can enjoy the elementary luxuries of fire, light, and space, and where they can read the paper or write a letter. He thinks also that there might be means of amusement and relaxation, such as games, music, singing, etc. This plan has been tried in Denmark and other countries. It means making the public house more of a club and less of a mere drinking shop. A better class of people would then resort to it, and there would be less likelihood of intoxication. Why, asks Mr Barclay, should there not be in London the sort of place which the Bishop of Birmingham so admired in Spain? There, during the Christmas week, he often visited the large cafes, which pond to our public houses. In one of the great halls could be seen as many as a thousand of the working class people of the city. They were all seated at tables, and in many cases a man would be accompanied by his wife and children. There was music and every kind of refreshment. The bishop never saw in these cafes thing disagreeable or unpleasant. But in English countries the public house remains the mere drinking place. It is not permitted to be made attractive. Games, such as chess or draughts, are frequently forbidden (Mr Barclay is writing of England), billiards only being allowed ; music is generally not permitted. Hence there is little else to do but drink. This is a policy, remarks Mr Barclay, who is in the brewing trade, “with which, on every ground, I profoundly disagree. I do not believe that it makes for temperance in the people, and I believe it to be an interference with liberties and rights which would need a very strong and clearly proved reason to justify.” He does not believe that it is, or ever will be, within the bounds of practical politics to forbid entirely the retail sale of alcoholic liquor.

It has always been a matter for wonder that the places

An At oraaly of Hard Times

of amusement are just as full when the pinch of poverty is

apparently pressing hardest as when the country is on the flood tide of prosperity. A Wellington contemporary, dealing with the subject, sums up the position to their own evident satisfaction, but we doubt whether the fae's are as stated. The article referred to has the following: “ We are told that times are bad, and that money is scarce for carrying on the legitimate business of the community. Tradesmen may have difficulty in getting their accounts settled, but there is no indication of a lack of ready cash amongst the pleasure-

lovers who constitute such a large proportion of our citizens. The tailor and the milkman may find money hard to obtain, but the theatrical managers, picture show organisers, skating rink proprietors, and boxing contest promoters are playing to full houses all the time. Those who give credit for the necessaries of life are having a worried existence just now, but those who extort hard cash, and plenty of it, for the entertainment they provide are having a splendid time. Wellington is a recklessly spendthrift community, and yet if a census were taken it would be found that every second person was living from hand to mouth. Until the trading community devise means for mutual protection 1 this sort of thing will continue, with improvidence and dishonesty the prevailing features of our social and civic life.” We believe this picture to be greatly overdrawn. It would most likely be found, on investigation, that the pf ople who throng tbe theatres and other distractions are not of tbe c ! ass that are always affected by industrial depression. They are the people with “ steady jobs ’’—saving, | careful souls who have a nest-egg put I by for the d irk dayi that come in | every family’s life. These are not ' they who spend in amusement what I they should give the grocer, the baker, and the other suppliers of necessities. There are exceptions, of course, but it is, we tbink, too sweeping an assertion to attribute such dissolute, irresponsible habits to so large a proportion of Wellington’s population, and at the same time cast such an unpleasant slur on the patrons of theatres and sport.