Lord Hampden and Tem

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIX, Issue 9060, 8 June 1898, Page 3

Lord Hampden and Tem

peimwe.

—♦_:_

That section of extremists which wrongly calls'itself a temperance part hasbeen given a crushing retortcourteous by Lord Hampden, Governor of' New South Wales. His Excellency had been (announced as having given his patronage to a picnic held under the auspices of the Licensed Victuallers' Association, and the secretary of the Local Option League had the boldness —not to use a harsher word-to write to him asking whether the announce ment was correct. At the same time the secretary inferred that the Governor should not have granted his patronage, seeing that he had refused it to the League.' Lord Hampden's private secretary replied :— _ "In his excellency's opinion the licensed victuallers area respectable body of tradesmen conducting their busi! ness under regulations prescribed by Acts of Parliament, and he sees no good reason why, as a representative of the Crown, he should not consent to give his support to entertainment having for its object the provision of a wholesome day's pleasure to a hard-worked body ot peoDle and the augmentation of a fund devoted to the relief, of distressed members of the trade." Adhering to this definition of his own duty .and the relation of. the licensed victualler to society the Governor confirmed his "patronage, thus very plainly intimating that. the League partisans ouuld neither frighten bim nor dictate to him. i he-picnic was held, atirl was attended by the Premier, the leader of the, Opposition, ami many prominent members of both political parties. In his speech the Premier was even more emphatic in advocating a reasonable policy on the liquor question than the Governor implied in his letter, Mr Reid declared that both he and the leader of the Opposition stood side by side "in a determination that the licensing trade of this country shall receive something like fair play." " I do not consider," he added, "that I am an enemy of the temperance interests of the couutry. On the contrary, I have always held that until you can civate a new sort of men altogether they are bound to want drink, and are bound to have it. But the question has always been to me whether you are going to degrade the manhood of the country in order to compel a man to sliuk round a comer, to get that which he is honestly entitled to, or. whether yon will allow, him to have ifc in an open legal way tinder the sanction of the laws of the land." Mr fteid also made an important declaration in favor ot hotels' being opeiv on Sundays tor a reasouable.tiine, "to enable the public to supply their legitimate wants," He was followed by the leader of the Opposition who said, incidentally, that •J be did not think that the public believed in any fanatical desire to stamp out altogether the houses and the j drink which they represented." We get from these quotations the views of the leading politicians cf the greatest colony in Australasia. They are opposed to any policy which will regajd the publican as anything but what he is, namely,' a trader carrying ou, business under the conditions that the law preooribos—carrying it on, too, for. the convenience of a majority of people, and therefore supplying a need just as the trader does who sells sugar, firewood, or anything else. That this latter contention ia true anyone may satisfy himself by studying tho(.'villoma I revwine returns. He will find fiom I them tbai< a very large p oportiun of ' the reveuue is got in the form of liquor dues, which obviously would not be paid unless a very large section of the public wanted liquor to consume. No doubt there is c need for moderation and legislative caution jn regulating this or any other trade. These, however, aie provided far by Parliament, 1 and carefully regarded by all respect- ' able publicans, The trade is properly 1 regulated, and for the most part carried on in a decent way. Iu fact, if our 1 " temperance" friends were as tern i perate as the other, side we should bo I saved a lot of boresome, futile discusi sion and quarrelling.—N.Z, Times, I Willi II 9

The Weatland Acclimatisation Sopiety are arrantri'Jg for 'lie aupplyof 50 bliick opo.'sums from Tasmania, and 60,000 brown trout ova frgm tbe Wellington Soqiety. The latter will b« hatched at the ■ Kanieri Lake hutcrery. The opoßsums, whioh are expeoted early nest month, -will be distributed in different localities oi the dißtriet|—"VV,P, Tiin««(