THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1912, 21 April 1874, Page 3

THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

The President of the Licensed Victuallers' Association at Melbourne delivered a lecture tho other day, in that city, on " the Use and Abuse of Spirituous Liquors," which he concluded thus :— " Tho man should be licensed as well as tho house ! that is, that as the house had to contain cortain accommodation and be properly furnished, so also the licensee should by reasonable evidence prove thafc he was a man of character fit to be entrusted wifch a license. The trivial pecuniary penalties levied "under the present acfc should be increased, and in certain cases followed up by the imprisonment or disqualification of the offender for such period as tho nature of the offence might appear to merit. Tho grocer's license ahould be abolished, for ifc was one that had done more to circulate bad drink aud increase drunkenness throughout tho country than its hottest opponents ever anticipated. Publichouse drunkenness wa3 bad enough, but it was generally confined to males, and mi hfc almost be stamped out by proper legislation, but its evil effects were a3 nothing with thafc private intoxication which sometimes desecrates the family hearth, and exhibited women in the most repulsive aspect in which a wife and mother could be viewed. And he was told on good authority that unsuspecting heads of families often paid for liquors under the guise of articles of grocery. All public-houses should have an entrance quite separate from tho bar, asa bottle and jug department, so that servants and others sent for liquors would not need to mix with strangers in the bar. Proper officers should be appointed to test the liquors sold — (hoar, hear) — for thero was no doubt that in this colony tho ill effects of drinking woro in some instances attributable to tho bad quality pf the liquor consumed. Power should be given to tho licensing bench to refuse new licenses to unlicensed houses, should such be opposed by the residents in the immediate vicinity. Such a power was intended to be given in the act now in exiatence, bufc from the obscurity of its wording it seems to have been inoperative. There were other minor matters which would also require to be dealt with in such a measure, but not of sufficient importance to bo now alluded to. Then, let the teetotallers practise what they preached, and not exhibit to the world the farce of the hardest drinking men in the country going into the Assembly as the solemn advocates of a Permissive Bill. Let them endeavour, by precept and example, to effect that im- i provement in others .which they seemed to think nothing les. than an Act of Parlia- 1

ment would do for themselves. Let innocent amusements be encouraged, especially openair ones, for nothing more readily stimulated a" craving for alcohol than a want of oxygen. Let the reclamation of dipsomaniacs be the earnest- work of tho physicians of the body and soul, and let those latter gentlemen make -themselves personally acquainted with the habits and surroundings of the drunken and dissolute. Lefc them occasionally leave the sheep who pay pew rents, and put money in the plates on Sundays, while they seek- the lost ones, who . are drunkenly drowning care and sorrow in the back slums ef our city. (Hear.) He would conclude by quoting some words spoken by Lord Houghton at the opening of the Social Science Congress at Norwich on Ist- October last. Referring to the Permissive Bill, he said, " Might not something more be done by greater attention to the physical causes to which a large portion of our drunkenness is due ? A more general and careful education? an extension of moral interests and intellectual pleasures ; a greater variety in the pursuits and social comforts of domestic life ; a clearer perception of tho indirect consequences of self-indulgenco havo resulted in an entire change in the habits of the upper classes, as compared with the customary intemperance of the last century. Why should- we not antici pate an equal alteration if we could cultivate the tastes, improve tho dwellings, enlighten the understandings, and elevate the sense of responsibility in the operative- masses ? and by making places of innocent amusement more accessible, cause the tavern to bo not the only soiree for fcho people. We may well be hopeless of extinguishing the yearning for alcoholic excitement whore- extreme poverty and hopeless misery givo to drink tho facile charm of the cheapest food and the readiest forgetfulnes ."