THE OLD CURE WORKING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 693, 18 June 1903, Page 22

THE OLD CURE WORKING.

( <f Givis ” in “ The Witness.”)

The cure for prohibition is — prohibition. This theorem has already’ been demonstrated in America; in New Zealand as yet it is only getting itself on to th© blackboard—the diagram of it, so to speak ; for the practical working out we must be allowed our own time. Speaking for Dunedin, I consider that Dunedin has made a fair beginning. Our new Licensing Committee, armed with “ the will of the people lethal weapon ! —does not, as Mr Isitt kindly explains, “ want to kill anybody.” For this degree of consideration let us be duly thankful. The publican, it may be, would remark to Mrlsitt, by way of reply, You may take my life When you do take the means whereby I live. But publicans are not to answer back. They may not claim a hearing, whether by counsel or otherwise. Their hash is settled and their potato cooled before even the Committee comes into court. This method of suppression by summary process jars rather on our English liking for fair play. Similar doings in England by what Mr Seddon would call a “ partizan bench have provoked from the Government a threat of intervention. I quote from the “ Pall Mall Gazette,” April 4 : — “ They feel it, said Mr Long, ‘ an intolerable condition of things ’ that honest and respectable men should Be robbed of their living in the intersts of a theory which takes much) for granted and in some instances becomes simply fanatical. . . It may be perfectly true, as Lord Peel maintains in “ The Times,” that in some cases the removal of licenses can be effected without injustice. But, on the other hand, we have seen at Birmingham and elsewhere the spirit in which some magistrates are prepared to use their sweeping jurisdiction, and that constitutes a menace to the security of justice and property which no impartial onlooker nan ignore. The call for intervention is both imperative and pressing.” In this country there will be no intervention ; I do not even desire that there should be. In making themselves odious as fast as may be, the Licensing Committees are doing very well ; let them

alone. On thia principle I welcometheir determination to abolish t(he ‘’counter lunch,” a form of repast which, so far. as is known, neither intoxicates nor invitesto gluttony, yet for some reason occult is held obnoxious by our Dunedin prohibitionists. All right; let them run their rig; the better the pace the sooner through.

In the course of his report to the Licensing Committee at Napier, Police Inspector Macdonald said :—“lt has recently been reported to me that possibly the hotelkeepers are sometimes wrongly blamed for the appearance from time to time of persons on Sunday mornings under the influence of liquor, when it is suggested that the liquor was obtained at the Working Men’s Club, and not at hotels. At present I am not in a position to say whether or not there is any truth in the suggestion, but in the future attention will be given to the matter with the view of definite information. Instructions' have been issued to

The local Public Health Committee of Battersea have selected the Licensed Victuallers’ Trade for a series of inquisitorial questions, which (says the L.V. Gazette) may safely be left unanswered. Among other impertinences, they want to know : The number of living rooms and sleeping rooms, and of apartments used for business in the house. Are any of the rooms let to lodgers or strangers ? Number of inmates in the house, specifying the number of adnlfc and children. Number of males and females employed in the business. Is the house clean ? Is it damp ? I® it in good repair ? Condition of the roof, cistern, yard. Is much of the yard unpaved. Is the water supply of the housedrawn from from the main ? Is the water supply of the bars draw®, from the mains ? Is the refuse properly stored ? Number and position of W.c.’s. Are the sinks in bar properly trappedand disconnected from drain ? Is a notice as Jo adulteration of spirit® exhibited ? Sanitary defects, other than stated above. (We have long been accustomed to thi® sort of thing in New Zealand).