LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ PICNIC.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 446, 9 February 1899, Page 18

LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ PICNIC.

We are very pleased to be able to record the fact that the long-talked-of licensed victuallers’ picnic is now virtually a certainty, and that it will take place on Wednesday, the Bth of March next. These outings of the members of the Trade and their families have long been popular in Melbourne and Sydney, and it is a matter for surprise that they have .not in the past been inaugurated here. The only explanation that we can give is that there has for a number of years been a lamentable lack of organisation amongst members of the Trade in Auckland ; an utter absence of that “ pull-together ” so urgently necessary amongst a class of men working on the same lines and towards the same goal. This disintegration, it is pleasing to note, is being gradually overcome, mainly through the efforts of the gentlemen who have so earnestly striven in the last year or two to rehabilitate the Association

and impress on their fellow publicans the advis'ableness of a community of interests and the imperative necessity of united action for the benefit of each and all. There is probably no simpler

means by which the members of the - Trade can be brought together, and have an opportunity of knowing one ar other at their best, than by their arranging for a general outing in which their families and friends can participate. Rivalry and petty jealousies are for the nonce cast aside; everyone is out to enjoy himself, and the usual restraint that is always

apparent at an ordinary formal meeting is cast aside. But our meaning must not be mistaken ; the proposed picnic has not been arranged for any ulterior or political motive, but simply for a day’s honest, innocent enjoyment. A man’s best points always come to the front when he has his family and children about him, and we want our detractors, as well as our friends, to appreciate the fact that the licensed victuallers of Auckland are men of standing and citizens of repute, whose private life is as open to criticism as their public life is subjected to unfavorable analysis by their illogical and at times unfair opponents. We pay more money into the consolidated revenue than any other class of tradesmen; we ply our trade under the most stringent restrictions, and yet if we make a mistake it is considered a flagrant misdemeanour, and if we adhere strictly to the letter and spirit of the law there is no credit for us. As a class we contribute to a major portion of the bone and sinew of the colony, but our shortcomings are placed before the public as crimes, and used by our opponents as texts from which to preach intolerant sermons, worthy only of a bigotry that should have been buried years ago by reasoning men. The great fault, or rather mistake, of the Trade is that its members in the past have been too prone to each try in his own way to do what he thought was just and fair, instead of consulting with his his neighbours and insisting that their combined rectitude and honest dealing should result in their voice being heard. However, things look better now that a feeling that union is necessary is growing stronger every day. Straws tell which way the wind blows, and the proposed picnic is certainly a strong point in favor of unity.