CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TRADE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 390, 13 January 1898, Page 16

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TRADE.

There can be no doubt about the anxiety experienced by the Trade in this colony during the year which has just expired, and we think it is safe to say that this anxiety was intensified by the spying and general espionage to which the members of the Trade were individually subjected, and we sincerely tender our hearty con gratulations to the wine and spirit merchants, to the brewers, and the hotelkeepers on the general triumphancy with which they have passed through the trying ordeal. At one time it was hoped, with some degree of reason, that the vexatious provisions of the Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act would have been amended, more particularly those clauses which provide for a triennial struggle about prohibition, and all the concomitant strife which the contest necessarily engenders ; and that after such a decided issue in favor of moderation in the conduct of the liquor business, and also in upholding the liberty and freewill agency of the subject, as that obtained at the last election, legislation would take place providing for a seven or ten years period from one election to another, and that it should be so far retrospective in its nature as to upply to the present era and to the last decisive vote. The prohibitionists approached the Premier and endeavoured by plausible statement to induce him to amend the law to their advantage. The Trade also approached him, but he refused to listen favorably to either party, and declared it to be the determination of the Cabinet to allow the licensing law to remain in statu quo. It is not our present intention to criticise the position taken up by the Government on this important question, further than to say that the Ministry has been charged by the prohibitionists with pandering to the Trade, and they (the latter party) have openly declared that no concessions were obtained in their favor, except such as were wrung from a hostile Premier and from a Government entirely out of touch with the prohibition sentiment, and covertly antagonistic to the legislation they allowed to pass. The “ champions of the pump ” have, with no uncertain sound, reiterated the statement that the Government can expect no future support from them, and this opinion has found verification in the action of the handful of extreme prohibitionists who occupy seats in the present House of Representatives. On the other hand the Trade can fairly claim to have given the Government and the members of the Government party a fair and generous support, and in many respects the declarations of Messrs Taylor, Smith, Isitt, and Co. can be accepted in this connection as conveying a modicum of truth. But at the same time it is patent to the whole country that those engaged in the Trade have not fettered, or attempted to fetter, their supporters in such bonds of abject political slavery to their cause as those who have tied the representatives cold water hand and foot to the Juggernaut of prohibition and fanaticism. All this is realised to the fullest extent by the Trade of the colony, and it forms • the subject of additional gratification. We have referred to the amateur coldwater detectives who have been actively harassing the hotelkeepers during the past year, but we cannot tender anything to those persons engaged in spying but our contemptuous denunciation of their con-

duct, and our condemnation will be endorsed by every right-thinking man and woman in the colony. Their operations have been principally confined to the watching of licensed houses, in order to obtain some data respecting Sunday trading and the consequent violation of the law in this respect. They have had men (we call them men because they belong to the masculine gender, and for this reason only) planted in some commanding place with book and pencil, and it is recoreed in the reports that these amateur political scavengers saw numbers, ranging from 220 to nearly 400, enter respective hotels during the Sabbath Day. Now, we are not prepared to say that none of those persons entering the hotels were guilty of a violation of the law whilst visiting there, but the spies and their bondmasters appear to have been oblivious of the fact that many of the houses placed under the ban had nearly a hundred bona fide lodgers at the time the spying took place, and unless the detectives are prepared to assert that no single lodger left the premises where he resided the report is largely discounted, if not rendered altogether valueless. However, it is gratifying to know that very little injury has been done to the Trade, and we have reason to believe that neither the Government, the Parliament, or the people attach any importance to the reports made, but, on the contrary, are decidedly of the opinion that Sunday trading is not increasing, and that the reports of the cold-water spies go to prove the popularity of the hotels of the colony, and to demonstrate the fact that great accommodation has been provided for lodgers and the travelling public. During the recent festive season the hotels in the large centres have been taxed to their utmost capacity to provide accommodation for visitors. In Wellington, Napier, Taranaki, and Auckland the hotelkeepers have “ strained every nerve ” to meet the requirements. The highest eulogies have reached us in this connection, and we congratulate the hotelkeepers of the colony on having obtained an expression of grateful acknowledgement from their numerous guests. In Auckland the weather during the holidays was intensely hot, and an outsider would have concluded that the throats of the people were as parched as the dry and thirsty earth. The heat at our great annual gathering on the Ellerslie Racecourse was unprecedented in its intensity for that place. The booths were crowded all day long by those who were anxious to allay the thirst which was almost chronic; and yet there was no apparent case of drunkenness, and the fact that almost daily the large supplies of cordial drinks were exhausted, and towards evening only spirits obtainable, goes to prove beyond the possibility of doubt the general temperance and sobriety of the people. During the past year a reasonable committee has been elected to administer the Licensing Act in the Wellington Suburbs district, and, like -reasonable men, they granted a license for the sale of alcoholic liquors on the Hutt Raceceurse, with a result identical in the matter of sobriety with that of Auckland. At the commencement of the year 1898 the people as a whole are more disgusted with fanaticism than they were twelve months ago, and whilst it would be folly to release Trade energies when it is wise to be watchful of every event, we again congratulate the whole Trade on its improved prospects and wish the members of it a happy and prosperous New Year