The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. THURSDAY, NOV. 15, 1894.

Waikato Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 3494, 15 November 1894, Page 4

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

THURSDAY, NOV. 15, 1894.

Equal and exact justice, to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

A gbeat flutter in the dove-cots of I the teetotalers of the old country has been caused by the publication of a letter from Mr Gladstone to Lord Turing, It reads thus:—"For many years I have been strongly of opinion that the principle of selling liquors for the public profit only offered the sole chance of escape from the present miserable and contemptible predicament which is a disgrace to the country. 1 am friendly to local option, but it can be no more than a partial and occasional remedy. The mere limitation of numbers-the idol of Parliament for the last 20 years—is; if pretending to the honour of a remedy, little better than an imposture. The growth of the systom of tied houses continually aggravates the prevailing mischief. Of details I do not speak, but in principle you are working on the only lines either promising or tenable, I am glad to see that Mr Chamberlain is active in your cause." The principle alluded to is what is termed the Gothenburg, which places the sale of liquor under the control of local bodies, or delegates the right to a company, dividends being restricted to five percent,, any profit accuring over and above this per centage is applied to the prosecution of necessary public works. The teetotal party are very irate at the action of the veteran ex-Prime Minister,. the party has supported him in the belief that he was in accord with them in their aspiration to stop all liquor traffic. A Mr Whitaker M.P. at a temperance convention in Sunderland characterised the letter as a scandal. This brought forth indignant condemnation from ..Mr Chamberlain that such a lerm should have been used, and he a'dcled " I have always been led to believe that he' regarded -the Gothenburg system as the means best calculated to attain a practical and .benificent result. Party exigencies apparently have prevented him > from declaring for it as a measure- demanding ventilation while he was active in the political world. Released from the trammels of party Mr Gladstone found himself tree to pronounce in favour of the system." Mr Chamberlain stated that 17 years ago he had agitated for the adoption of the system and would still like to see the'experiment tried in a town or district with 50,000 inhabitants. The only proper way in which it could be taken up. was by raising the money required or the rates, and he saw no reason against a scheme of compensation taxed by arbitration, on the basis of the value of the house to the publican. Both these statesmen, who are in the very front rank of political thinkers, recognise that the idea of the teetotalers, prohibition, is only capable of limited application, and the experience gained in America and other countries has clearly demonstrated that the result is demoralising to the people subjected to the restriction. We accord to the temperance party,,all sincerity in their endeavours, but it is impossible to overlook the fact that they allow thi.'ir enthusiasm to render their minds incapable of grasping the two self-apparent facts that prohibition is impossible, and being so, that the next best step is to mitigate the evil results by stringent regulations. Begulations no matter how stringent or carefully devised are always capable of being transgressed, and so long

as those who are nominally bound by them have a monetary interest in evading them many will exercise their ingenuity in order to secure the extra profit. The Bishop of Chester, who is the leader of the party advocating the adoption of the system, delivered a powerful address on the 4th October at the annual meeting of the Petersborough branch of the Church of England Temperance Association. He quoted the following passage from a speech delivered by Mr Gladstone in May, 1890:-" At present, as I understand it, the case of the Government is that the number of public-houses is enormous, Yes, but something else ought to he taken into consideration, Why is it that the position of the publichouses in this country of ours is lower than it is in any country in Europe? This is the result of the management we have followed, and the number does not in the slightest degree tend to mitigate that statement, lam one of those who see the utmost, incurable, radical and profound mischief from what is called the publicans' monopoly, and not through any iault of the publican, or indeed of anyone. My Arm belief is that so long as the monopoly, connected with private interests, belongs to the trade, we shall never have true and efficient public supervision exercised over the public-houses, and without that they must continue to hold the disparaged and unsatisfactory position which they do hold now, and have held for many generations." As the Bishop added : '' No language could be clearer or more emphatic as to the expediency of transferring the liquor monopoly from private to public hands." In speaking of the tied house system, he pointed out that it doubled the motive to sell liquor. The publican was already in the shafts drawing the customer down hill with sufficient speed. Now the brewer mounted the box and brought the publican under the whip. Mr Chamberlain has pointed out that .every step of temperance reform had to encounter, and generally in vain, the opposition of a strong vested interes 1 ;. He proposed to eliminate this vested interest. . They would then be. rowing with, and no longer against, wind and tide. This he proposes to do by reasonable compensation, and points out that the funds could be raised on the rates. The temperance party in this colony will not, listen to the word " compensation," and thus alienate large numbers from their ranks and compel a determined opposition to all. reform. The liquor question will be one of the bones of contention during the next session. We believe that if the' Government during the recess were/to prepare a Bill on the lines now being agitated for in-England, and present it in place of the amendments to the : present Act, that they would have the support of the country.! T ; he.interest and sinking fund could be secured on the profits which would accrue from the sale of liquor by the Government. It would be. a much safer investment than will be the £1,500,000 to be borrowed for lending out to farmers. It is to U9 manifest that no reform of any real service can be accomplished until the temperance party becomes mentally temperate. They will-not be state till they abandon the idea that the consumption of alcohol can bo stopped and that it is right for the State to confiscate any man's property.