THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS GKZETTE

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 800, 6 July 1905, Page 23

THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS GKZETTE

A TEMPERATE .COMMUNITY

Seeing what numbers of people ■throughout New Zealand are taking the pledge, impelled by the ravings of the temperance orators, it seems somewhat strange that these misguided leaders themselves do not come to a very.obvious conclusion. Surely it must strike them that with all these people eagerly clamouring to sign the pledge, New Zealand must be a very temperate country after all. They have crowded meetings wherever they go, and it is safe to say that every member of their audience is a prohibitionist, in each locality. They point, to the long list of pledge figures and impress upon the community the fact that they are snatching hundreds of people from the evil paths of drink. A large section of tbe community, always ready to be gulled and ever on the lookout for some, fresh scandal, immediately go into ecstacies over the great and pious work, and fall tooth and nail.mpon every publican within reach. The publichouses may be splendidly equipped and kept, drunkenness may never be seen in ■the locality, and the buildings themselves may offer absolutely the best accommodation. in the towns, as they unquestionably do in all cases. Granted all this, the fact remains that these prohibition fanatics and their ■ leaders are aroused to a perfect pitch of frenzy at the very mention of the word liquor. One drunken man is discovered in a community numbering several thousands, and immediately a wail of horror arises. The man himself is left to doze quietly in the gutter whilst the no-license cranks and their followers do all in their power to ruin the nearest publican as a protest against the sight of this ne’er-do-well. Never mind whether the publican is a law-abid-ing man and a good citizen, he sells drink, so must be .ruined. This they proceed to do. wrathfully and with true Christian spirit, people who if their own means of making a living were interfered with would make a fine row. At the rate they are going now however, they bid fair to defeat their own ends with the absurdity of their contentions