SUNDAY TRADING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 433, 10 November 1898, Page 18

SUNDAY TRADING.

There is probably nothing short of absolutely establishing free beer fountains for the thirsty poor in various prominent places in the city that would so thoroughly arouse the ire of the shrieking brotherhood of prohibitionists as a move in the direction of legitimate Sunday trading, and yet such a move will inevitably be made in the near future, and its succsss will be just as inevitable. Now, let us take first the stock objections to the proposal and answer them logically, and next bring forward the presumable benefits that will accrue if the law providesfor liquor being sold at certain hours on the prohibited day. Imprimis, it is claimed that the sale of liquor on Sunday will be a desecration of the day. It is not within our province to either support or contradict the religious opinions of any section of the community. They all have our profound respect when honestly adhered to ; but we do take exception to the inconsistency of the argument: If there be no crime in liquor being sold on week days, then why should its sale be prohibited on Sunday, provided secular entertainments are allowed under the thinly-veiled disguise of sacred concerts or lectures ? If every method of work for hire or gam, where the profits are to be derived from the public at large, be prohibited, then by all means refuse to permit the sale of liquor; but if other breaches of the Sabbath Day are legitimate or tacitly allowed, why make an exception of the Trade ? Secondly, it is claimed that if liquor were allowed to be sold on Sundays the consequent presumable drunkenness would not only be a digrace to the city, but that the feelings and sensibilities of churchgoers, and even non-churchgoers, who were out with their familes would be shocked by the exhibition of intoxicated persons in public places. To this argument we take violent exception, for several reasons. In the first place, those who desire drink on Sunday may be divided generally into two classes. One, the well-to-do man, who as a matter of fact can, under existing circumstances, procure all the drink he wishes at the diffeient clubs in the city ; and, second, the working man, who almost invariably, if the option were granted him, would prefer whatever he had to drink in his own home and with his Sunday meal. Before going any further we would just here refer to the point that it is a well-known fact that with the law as it at present stands there is no difficulty whatever in procuring drink on Sunday away from the publichouses, and the peculiar part of the matter is that one can’t take a modest modicum of ale home for consumption with one’s dinner, but one can drink to intoxication on the premises. We mention, no names, we merely state an admitted fact. Surely, then, the argument in favor of an increase of visible drunkenness falls to the ground, as its option is legally permitted at the “ clubs,” and it is only the chance of remotely possible private intoxication that is prohibited. Thirdly, it is claimed that Sunday trading would deprive the servants necessarily employed of their well-earned holiday. To this we have only to ask, what of the ferry service ? What of the ordinary hotel service ? What of the innumerable branches of work that make Sunday as much a day of labor for many of our Auckland inhabitants as any other day ?

Now, on the other hand, if stated hours that would not interfere with the sensibilities of the most hypercritical portion of the public at large were legalised for the sale of liquor, the working man, who cannot afford to keep a cellar or a stock of refreshments, could purchase and take home his Sunday beer, and consume it with his family; the traveller could obtain necesrary refreshment ; and for those in service their work could quickly be got over and the off hours genuinely enjoyed in a leisure which now is seldom permitted. Besides, men who pay heavy fees for the privilege of engaging in the trade would not suffer the unfair competition that they now do. Sunday trading under certain restrictions has proved a distinct boon and success in England and in South Australia. Copeland’s Bill in the New South Wales Assembly has brought it within the bounds of probability in that colony, and it is only a question of time when it will become an established fact in New Zealand if the question is only approached in a nonpartisan manner, and the element of illogical fanaticism is eliminated.