NO-LICENSE IN OPERATION.

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 1 June 1907, Page 3

NO-LICENSE IN OPERATION.

Seen at Close Quarters,

THE testimony of the Auckland contingent who lately re-

turned from Invqrcargill after attending the big Masonic gathering there, does not tend to increase one's admiration for the working of the nolicense sjsteni. Briefly summed up ? it is Bornetbing to this effect : That the abolition of licensed houses has certainly made it a little difficult to obtain liquor, but that any person ■who is anxious to get it, and knows the run of the ropes, can obtain, and does obtain, as much liquor to-day as he did when Invercargill boasted a dozen or so licensed houses. Moreover, though the purchasing is done openly, and in a perfectly lawful way, the drinking is more or less Burreptitious, and in this way evils are introduced that are as harmful to the community as any of those charged against the license system.

That drunkenness has been driven out of the streets of Invercargill cannot be denied. Also, the idle person who in most towns strolls about from hotel to hotel, even though he may not lose his self-control, has disappeared. Indeed, from the condition of its streets at night, Invercargill might be taken for a model borough. There is, however, other evidence which tends to show that, in its pre-tent-ions to sobriety, the town ia a whited sepulchre. There is undoubtedly less open drinking, but the evil of secret drinking is rampant. Again, the liquor habit has spread en classes who, under license, would have been debarred. As was inevitable, the locker system and the family or club keg are everywhere in evidence.

Though the Invercargillite is prevented from purchasing liquor in his own town, he has only to take a railway trip of a few miles to the north, to supply all his needs. Just across the border of the next electorate, there are several depots thoughtfully established by Dunedin and Invereargill brewing firms, where he can satisfy his requirements in the way of fivegallon kegs, or send orders for reasonable quantities of spirits. Easier still, if he has business at the Bluff, less than an hour distant, he will find licensed houses in full swing there, and can, if he chooses, bring hotne a single bottle in bis coat pocket. His supply of liquor is by no means cut oft. He is only driven^ to the necessity of annoying stratagems in getting it.

It is a mistake to suppose that drinking has been abolished in the lnvercargill hotels. The system of supply is merely altered. In the principal houses a brisk business is still done, but on anew plan. Instead of the landlord supplying the liquor, the consumer imports his own from the nearest or handiest no-license district, but the hotel dispenses it. As to the method pursued^ the evidence of a friend of ours is interesting, la the street one day he met an acquaintance, who asked him whether, in such cold weather, a glass of whisky would not be a good idea. " Certainly," said our friend ; " but where are you going to get a whipky iv no - license lnvercargill?" "The simplest thing in the world," rejoined the Invercargillite. "Come along, and yor'll soon see."

Accordingly, the pair adjourned to one of the leading hotels. Above the door of a room that opened from the main hall was displayed the wotd " bar," in what a casual visitor might take to be a sarcastic reminder of former associations. But, on entering the room, the visitor found that the bar was still a very real thing. Behind the counter was one of the regular Hebes of the unregenerate type of hotel, dispensing liquors as briskly and as plentifully as business is done in any bar in Queen-street. The ODly thing that distinguished the place from an ordinary licensed house was that there was no display of bottled liquor on the shelves. Instead, there were on the wall behind the bar tier upon tier of lockers.

Each of these lockers is rented by some person in town, who pays the landlord a stated sum per year, and keeps the key. Whenever a lessee desires to slake his own thirst or that of his friends, he hands over the key to the barmaid, who passes out from the locker whatever liquid may be desired, making a small c barge for the sodawater and the use of the tumblers. Whenever the stock on hand runs low, it is the damsel's duty to advise the locker - tenant, who thereupon replenishes his supply Ly means of dropping a postcard to the nearest depot or hotel. The net result is that every " man about town " in Invercargill has his private locker, from the contents of which he can treat himself or his friends. And there are those who aver that as much drinking is done now as ever there was. The person most embarrassed is the casual visitor to the town, tie can enjoy the hospitality of the residents, but has no means of reciprocating.

About the drinking in the houses formerly licensed there is the advantage that it is to a certain extent open to supervision, inasmuch as the places are under the eyes of the police. There is, however, another kind of drinking that is more dangerous. The importation of kegs of beer and bottles of spirits is very general, and it it* stated by those who profess to know that the common practice of the person who has had the lack to obtain a consignment is to rally a party of friends around him and finish the lot at a sitting. People who, under a license system, would satisfy themselves with a glass or two in a hotel, become accustomed to orgies that elsewhere are almost unknown.

Another evil of no-license, with its attendant locker system, is the extension of the drinking habit among youths. Under licenße, no lad under

sixteen can lawfully be served with liquor. But in the no-license districts —Ashburton and Oarnaru, as well as Invercargill —it has become the custom of the elder lads in football and other clubs to establish lockers at their clubrooms, and from those lockers to supply drink to immature youngsters who under licensed conditions would be protected. On this point we have the testimony of one parent in par-

ticular who speaks very bitterly about the way in which his own lad has bee« led astray at his club-room. Altogether, there is abundant evidence that no-license is attended by very sabstantial evils. The late Richard Seddon was a far seeing statesman, and he bit upon a solid truth when he decided that there were only two means of curing these evils —either regulation or complete prohibition.