ADULTERATED LIQUORS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume I, Issue 19, 16 November 1878, Page 2

ADULTERATED LIQUORS.

(to the editor of the waipawa mail.) S IR > —The crying evil of intemperance throughout the length and breadth of the land is a source of sorrow, misery, and poverty to hundreds, at the same time it fills our gaols, hospitals, and lunatic asylums to overflowing, thereby burdening the state to an alarming extent; and yet no remedy is suggested or propounded by our legislators. To make men walk in the paths of ‘sobriety by an Act of Parliament I am aware is utterly impossible and the attempt would be futile in the extreme. But if this cannot be accomplished, I do think that the powers that be should take some steps to counteract the sale of the vile and abominable compounds which are retailed to the unthinking public in the shape of grog. True this at first sight may appear a somewhat difficult task, and one that would entail a heavy expenditure upon the country ; but such really is not the case, and the method I would adopt of bringing these wholesale poisoners to justice is simply this. An inspector for a district should be appointed, who should have power at any time to enter any public-house and demand from the proprietor a sample of his spirits from any tap, bottle, or cask, such sample to be immediately sealed up and forwarded to the Government Analytical Chemist, and if found to contain any deleterious or injurious compound, the publican should be fined £IOO with forfeiture of license for ever. This may appear hard, but I hold that it is just, and if carried out, insanity and intemperance would to a great extent, be abolished ; for it is not in the quantity that is partaken of, but the quality of the liquor wherein lies the dreaded evil. So much for the publican, who if guilty, is deserving of punishment for tampering with the reason

and lives of the community, but still t!w publican is to be protected from the importer and wholesale wine and spirit merchant. And to do this the Customs authorities should upon all occasions of the importation of spirits, have an analysis made before it is allowed to be placed in the market, and if found to be adulterated or unfit for human consumption, it should be forthwith destroyed, and the shippers or importers punished, either by fine or imprisonment. If this were carried out the legitimate trader would be protected and the community safe from the danger whenever they partook of spirituous liquors of being poisoned or driven mad by kerosene brandy or other vicious compounds, which are being continually introduced into New Zealand ; and which if not checked will ultimately bring ruin and misery upon hundreds, besides demoralising and conterminatiug whole communities. I could enlarge upon this subject, but fearing that I have already trespassed too tar upon your valuable space, I am, &c., VERATATOB.