PUBLICANS AND MAORIS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume I, Issue 22, 27 November 1878, Page 3

PUBLICANS AND MAORIS.

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE WAIPAWA MAIL/ SiR, —Are Maoris who look up to oil most gracious Majesty as their Queen Lg British subjects ? If 60, are they entitled d to all the rights and privileges of free born Britishers? I am led to ask these questions simply through a fracas thal took place on Friday night last, betweei some Maoris while suffering from ar extra imbibification of spirituous liquors, which led (perhaps deservedly so) to one ° being locked-up, and the constable afterwards intimating to the hotel keepers that they must not again serve Maoris with _ spirituous or fermented liquors, or they would run the risk of being prosecuted for so doing. Now, in the name of com- , mon sense, why is this farce tried to be * fnacted ? True, I may be told that there is an Act prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages to the Maori race, and that any infringinent of such Act is punishable. In admitting the existence of such an Act I at once reply that although it is still on the statute book, it has (if not literally) virtually become a dead letter, and seldom or ever called into operation. In short - the authorities have shut their eyes, and wisely so, to the workings of the said Act. Why, in Napier they are permitted in the leading hotels to partake of what stimulants they stand in need of, and no interference of the police. At the Spit, Taradale, Farndon, Hastings, Paki Paki, and Te Ante the same right is permitted; and why strive to make Waipawa singular in this matter I am at a loss to understand. I know it may be said that when the Maoris get intoxicated they are riotous, noisy, and fightable. Granting all this, does not the same apply to our countrymen in a jnuch greater degree than it does to the Maoris ? Look at the “drunk” list of the police courts throughout the colony and see to what an alarming extent drunkenness preponderates in favor of the Maoris. Yet, there is no idea of excluding or debarring the temporate European from stimulants simply because others yet diunk. No, and neither should it be done with the Maoris. In fact we have given them all the rights and privileges of Englishmen in the shape of the franchise, members of the General Assembly, as well as the Legislative Council, and why debar them the right of getting drunk (which is decidedly an English privilege), always assuming that if they indulge in such luxury they shall be treated as Europeans are under similar circumstances, viz., provided with lodgings in the lock-up and subjected to a fine the next morning. But to debar or attempt to debar publicans from serving Maoris with liquor is the last remnant of a barbaric fever already played out. And were I an hotelkeeper to-morrow I would serve every' Maori who asked for refreshments irrespective of the law which, as I have already said, has become a dead letter. In fact, hotelkeepers should combine within themselves to test the validity of serving Maoris with drink. The expense would not be very great, and it would have the effect of settling this much vexed question at once, if not for ever.—l am, &c., PAKEHA. November 25, 1878.