The Licensed Victuallers

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 326, 22 October 1896, Page 10

The Licensed Victuallers

THE LIQUOR BILL.

In attempting to please two such antagonistic factions as the Cold-Tea Party and the Trade, the Premier found himself on the horns of a dilemma—betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea. Hence his Alcoholic Liquor Bill, which sought to work that modern miracle —satisfy the Prohibs on the one hand, and gratify the Liquor Party on the other. Well may the People’s Richard complain of the worry and botheration that this liquor legislation has cost him. Whisky has faced him with the demand : “ Do me justice; rid me of the oppression and tyranny of my enemies, and place me beyond their power. Water has confronted him with the cry : “ No favouritism 1 Dare to play into the hands of the Trade, dare to ignore me and set me at defiance —and you know what you may expect when the General Election comes on.” And with consummate skill and infinite tact Mr Seddon has got out of a very tight place. He pressed on the Liquor Bill in the Lower House, and did all in his power to forward it. But does any person of ordinary intelligence suppose that he ever imagined, for one moment, that the Bill would get past “ the Lords ? ” Even if it had passed that august body and become the law of the land, National Option would never have been carried. The people of New Zealand are not in the remotest degree likely to vote straight for cold tea and take out a Prohibition order against themselves. National Prohibition is an utterly preposterous thing, and as for this Liquor Bill — did its framers ever seriously suppose that the people would tolerate its monstrous proposals ? Would the public allow the chemists and druggists to control the liquor traffic, and to serve out whisky and wine and ale “ for medicinal purposes only,” until (as in America) these liquor shops, masquerading as ° drug-stores,” increased and multiplied so that there was one of them to every hundred or so of the population ? Think you the people of this progressive colony, who pride themselves upon their liberty and their independence, and all the rest of it, would submit to apply to a chemist when they needed stimulant, having first of all (in compliance with the law) armed themselves with a doctor’s certificate ? And would they submit to reply to a string of inquisitorial queries, and run the risk of being fined as much as a hundred pounds, and undergoing three months’ imprisonment for breach of a tyrannous and oppressive law ? We have seen the results of Prohibition (on a small scale) in the Clutha. Are those results of such a kind as to make us wish for Prohibition on a large scale ? The T.T. party is powerful and well-organised, but I don’t think it is quite powerful enough to force National Prohibition down the throats of the people, and to compel all and sundry to drink cold water on pain of paying hundred pound fines and imprisonment with hard labour. — The Spectator. TRADE TOPICS. According to a return laid on the table of the House on October 15, the sly grog convictions in the Clutha district since prohibition was thirtyfour against two for a similar period previous to prohibition. There is not much in the fact to cause teetotallers to rejoice, because surely it points to the conclusion that distasteful legislation provokes an increase of secret sin, and that bad law makes law-breakers.

At Wanganui, before Mr Kettle, S.M., a resident was fined £5 for unlawfully procuring drink for a prohibited person. A Bill to amend the Licensing Act, by permitting the transfer of hotel licenses from inferior to superior houses, was thrown out by the Victorian Assembly. Mr Jackman, the candidate for Waitemata, makes his position plain. With regard to prohibition, he is in favour of a three-fifths majority, but he does not think that the Government are so black as they are painted. Heriot having been incorporated in the Lawrence Electorate, the Tuapeka licensing committee will piobably be asked to renew the license which was lost through the carryingof prohibition in Clutha.

At Masterton the other day a prohibited person was fined 40s and costs for being found in an hotel. “ A Suburban Vicar ” gives vent to his feelings in a letter to a daily paper, thus : —“ Sir, the Church is in danger no less from an excessive puritanism than from an excessive love of pleasure which distinguishes too many. But why should the excess or abuse of a thing make its use \vrong ? Because some spend a few shillings and others a few pounds in what is culled ‘ drink,’ par excellence, why should they lose their rights if 2 per cent, of the population are drunkards ? Are not music, draughts, football, dancing, cycling, tableaux, cricket, golf, innocent in themselves, and are innocent and honourable people to be deprived of them because, forsooth, some take them to exccess ? Surely not.” An athletic friend on reading the above remarked, “There is a manly ring about that. It would be any odds on the suburban vicar in a 24-foot ring or on the platform against both Isitt and Crabb.”

What is known as the Burton Brewery shooting case has lately been exciting interest in Melbourne. Last week J. M. Barclay, the company’s traveller, was charged with shooting at Thomas George Stacey, the brewer, with intent to kill him. Strained relations appears to have existed between the parties, and this culminated, it is alleged, in Barclay taking a pot-shot with a revolver at Stacey at a range of one foot. Mr Barclay’s accuracy of aim may be imagined when the fact is stated that the bullet missed its billet, and the only injury done to Mr Stacey was that he sustained a shock to the nervous system which caused him to career round the officer desk in his desire to keep that useful piece of furniture between him and the excitable traveller. Barclay’s excuse for the deed is that Stacey had wounded his feelings and he therefore had determined to wound his body in return, but not to kill him. He has been committed for trial and the brewery still brews.

At Wynyard, Tasmania, two men were fined £2O each for having portions of a still and a quantity of colonial spirit in their possession. Plum wine, it appears, is a popular teetotal beverage in the south, but it has been proved that it is two and a half times as intoxicating as beer. Yet the prohibitionists like it. Prohibition has not, it would appear, improved Berwick. The other evening a dance was held, and liquid refreshments were very much in evidence. Had the hotel there been still open the probabilities are that the droughty souls would have quenched their thirst and departed. But with “ pocket-pistols ” the festive youths soon lose their equilibrium with the result that things are made livelier than ever. On the morning after a terpischorean revel there are more swelled heads in Berwick under Prohibition than was the case when a licensed house was in the district.— Taieri Advocate.

The Hon. J. Kerr in the debate on the Liquor Bill : “ I think the Prohibitionists are imbued with the feelings of those fenatics of olden times who burned heretics at the stake for the love of God. . . .We might as well ask that the ocean should be fenced in so that men might not get drowned, as pass such legislation as this to make men temperate.” The “ tailors of Tooley Street ” have left a number of descendants in the prohibitionists of the United States. Utterly oblivious as to the policy of “ free silver ” or “ no silver,” they have selected a candidate for the Presidency, and he is neither Bryan nor McKinley, but “ one of their own,” Josiah Levering by name. Josiah ‘‘ faces the one supreme question, and trusting in God for strength, lifts his arm to strike the saloon a fatal blow.” He has running with him for the vice-presidency Ebenezer Johnson, and they are firmly convinced that the “ National Prohibition Party ” should run the Government, as witness let us quote Josiah’s high-falutin : —“ I hold that the time has arrived when the voters of this country can and should trust the reins of government into the hands of the Prohibition party, having the assurance, based on the spirit of disinterestedness that has always animated it, that every pledge will be honestly fulfilled, and every act of legislation will have for its controlling motive the honour of God, the welfare of the people, and the good of the country so dear to us all.” ‘ Confusion to Prohibition I’ was one of the toasts proposed at Speight ann Co.’s recent sup. per to their employes. The proposer said that he was addressing as temperate and steady a body of men as could be found in any Prohibition employ. Physically and mentally he felt sure they would compare favourably with members of the pump party, and he would back them against an equal number of Prohibs. for anything “ from pitch-and-toss to the other extreme.” The toast was heartily honoured, and the hoys then sung “ For They Are Jolly Mean Fellows.”