LICENSING LAW.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4559, 7 June 1889, Page 4

LICENSING LAW.

♦ Ihe following is tho full text of the remarks n.ade (by Dr Drysdale, chairman of tbe Port Chalmers Licensing Committee on Tuesday :— It ra&y not be out of place on this occasion to make a few remarks with regard to the views held by tho committee and the line of policy we have decided to adopt. Firstly, we are strongly of opinion that the machinery of the Licensing Act was never intended by the Legislature for the suppression or obliteration of what is called the liquor traffic, but rather with a view to its proper regulation tind restriction within due limits. We thereforo consider that no person who is notoriously pledged to do his utmost to abolish the traffic should be eligible for a soat on the Licensing Bench, and that the Licensing Act ought to be forthwith amended m this direction. It is a manifest injustice to which no other trade or industry is subjected that tho followers of an occupation which is directly counteDanoed by the State should nevertheless be compelled annually to fight, aa it were, for their bare lives, m order to prevent the occupation of this Bench by men pledged to do their utmost to effect their ruin. And to add to the hardship, theie unfortunates are not permitted to stand m their ovrn defence, but are compelled to lay themselves under an obligation to any five citizens whom they can find possessed of sufficient moral caurage to waive the obloquy supposed by many otherwise sensible people to attach to suoh a position. Personally, I will say that had I not an innate love of fair play, nothing would aver induce me to subject myself to the vilification with which sines first I stood as a candidate I have been assailed m certain quarters whence better things might have been expected, to say nothing of a not inconsiderable pecuniary loss. Having laid so much on this aide question, we wish it to be none the less understood Hint wo shall, to the best of our judgment and ability, guard and protect what we consider to be the interest of the public, and iend our aid, so far as possible, to the cauße of order and sobriety. " With these objects m view, we hereby urge upon the police to exercise strict supervision over the licensed houses, with the view of detecting and punishing any breach of tbe Act, such as selling after hours, Sunday trading, und particularly gambling. Finally, with regard to this bone of contention the bottle license, the Committee do not feel called upon to express an opinion favorable or the reverse as to the desirability of the system. Probably, indeed, our individual opinions 35 members would diffor. But, however that may be, we are absolutely unanimous on this pomt — that so long ns the system exists m this immediate neighborhood, and so long as liquor hawking — for it amounts to that— from Dnnedin and elsewhere cannot be stopped (and as the late Committee, which was practically a Blue Ribbon Committee, did not put a stop to it, I think we are justified m asaumiug that it cannot bS stopped)— l say, so long as this state of things continues, we are distinctly of opinion that a policy which would deprive tho town of a considerable amount of revenue or which would drive away trade, while it would not help the cause of temperance, nor lessen the consumption of drink by one bottle, would bo nothing less than an idiotic and suicidal policy. We have therefore, as you h.ivo seen, issued these licenses aa formerly.