TRADE TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 381, 11 November 1897, Page 14

TRADE TOPICS.

Sir George Turner, the Premier of Victoria, when recently in England, gave it as his deliberate opinion that the most drunken and dis•reputable parts of Australia are those where the prohibition of drink by law is attempted.

At Mildura, in Victoria, the milk and water systtm has proved as pronounced a failure as it has been in lowa, and in our own Clutha, where, by the way, a man was recently fined £5O for slygrog selling, and the lesideuts subscribed the money within an hour, not merely as a mark of sympathy, be sure, but as an intimation that the Clutha people intend a have another sly-grog shou. And Prohibition does not merely fail to prohibit. It breeds sneaks, spies, and informers; it fosters and encouiages de.ceit, falsehood, and hypocrisy, and sets up an infinitely worse state of things than that it professes to mend. The candidate was standing in the cold-water interest; he had deluged the meeting with cold water, having talked leetotalism for an hour and a half’. Then a vote of coi fidence was asked for, and a solemn man in the body of the hall arose with an amendment —“ I propose that the present candidate retires in favour of Strawberry, my old

cow.” There was a roar of laughter, but the solemn man waited sadly till it was over, and then went on —“ She don’t, know anythin about politics, an’ she’s a bit weak in the wind, and in all other respects she’s like Mr what’s-his name there, never havin’ drunk anythin’ but cold water in her life.” The audience yelled, and the candidate didn’t get a vote of confidence.

A “ scene ” took place at the Wigan (England) Licensing Sessions in September. The Justices heard 115 applications for music licenses. Mr Buckley, solicitor, Manchester, on behalf of certain temperance advocates, strenuously opposed the applications, and contended that the granting of these licenses led to the playing of sensual music and the singing of suggestive songs. The Mayor of Wigan (Aiderman Richards), who is a licensed victualler, warmly interposed, and exclaimed to Mr Buckley, “ I can assure you there are a great many licensed victuallers in ihis town quite as respectable as yourself.” Mr Buckley resumed his seat after having been completely sat upon.

The abandonment by the State of lowa of its cold-water policy and its return to the old order of things, including the establishment of breweries and distilleries, and the licensing of liquor saloons and public bars, will doubtless be a bitter pill for Messrs Isitt, Taylor, Palk, and Co. to swallow (states the Spectator), and will at the same time prove another nail in the coflin of Prohibition. For thirteen years lowa was a cold-water State where the public sale of liquor was sternly repressed and the Trade was in the hands of the druggists and other sly-grog sellers, and now lowa’s eyes are open, and, recognising that the evils associated with the illicit traffic in drink are ten thousand times wor.-e than those connected with the licensed trade, it has swept the hollow sham of Prohibition aside and come to its senses again.

The New York Evening Post has the following regarding the workings of prohibition “ The thing that most surprises visitors to a prohibition State is the amount of liquor that is drunk on gala days. The New England fair has often been held at’Worcester, M»ss., a license city in a State where each community regulates the matter lor itself. This year it took place in Portland, Me., Neal Dow’s City, and under the Maine law. The correspondent of the Worcester Spy was amazed by his observations. Such a thing as the sale of liquor on the grounds of an agricultural society would never be thought of in Massachusetts. At Portland ‘ beer was sold as openly as is lemonade or ginger ale at most agricultural shows; there were bars, where for ten cents a glass or twenty cents a bottle you could revel in beer to your heart’s content.’ The Worcester observer saw other things to which he was not accustomed at home —pool-selling upon the races, ‘ roulette wheels in the open, and doing a tremendous business,’ and a ‘ midway,’ in which was given ‘ a performance that would not be tolerated in Worcester for a single moment.’ The correspondent does not mention seeing Neal Dow on the grounds. Perhaps he was at home composing one of his familiar articles on the advantage ot prohibition over licenses in elevating the moral tone of a State.”

Are wine-producers liable to taxation ? (asks the Sydney Evening News). That is to say, is it fair that they should be ? This was the question discussed at the meeting of the Council of the Central Australian Wine Association the other day, and answered in the negative. The Commissioners of Taxation, however, think otherwise. The fact was duly explained in a letter' from the department, which was set forth to the meeting. In this communication it was pointed out that the income referred to was not in the proper meaning of the words derived directly from the use and cultivation of land. The exemptions in thut direction were made in contemplation of what were strictly to be considered as natural products. Grapes undoubtedly come under such a heading. But when the grapes were turned into wine it was a different thing. Here the income was derived in connection with a change effected by artificial process. The wine then became the direct source of income, and the production of it was, as regards taxation, to be subjected to the same conditions as any other business. With respect to the grapes which he used the wine producer could deduct the expense of them, whether they were raised by himself oi by anybody else, and, in short, he would be dealt with simply as people engaged in other callings were. The council could not follow this line of argument to the point at which the grapegrower was invested with entirely new responsibilities in his character of a wine maker. In the letter which it was decided that the secretary should write to the commissioners, particular attention was to be called to the circumstance that, undei the Licensing Act, winegrowers are exempt from license fees for the sale of wine, it being considered as a direct product of the soil. If it presents itself under such an aspect from the Excise Department, as apparently it does, then the very much altered character it assumes when brought within the official range of the Commissioners of Taxation is perhaps not quite so intelligible as could be desireed. There seems to be a slight inconsistency, somehow, in the two principles.