THE TRADE AND ITS ENEMIES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 801, 13 July 1905, Page 24

THE TRADE AND ITS ENEMIES

(From the “ Australian Brewers’ Journal.”) Recently there has been exhibited towards the trade an embittered. spirit oi aggression, not only on the part of its acknowledged and avowed enemies, but by those whose position should preclude them from taking sides in a matter most acrimoniously debatable and ■ debated. Above all things in law, precedent should be respected by its mouthpieces, until the precedent has been proved morally wrong or unjust. To throw aside suddenly the practices of the past, or to ignore them entirely, is altogether foreign to British, or, indeed, any, law, and therefore we can only regard the proceedings of the Sydney Licensing Court as indications of the extremes to which prejudice is capable of driving men, sumably impartial, and the fate of the publican must hazard when brought before such a bench. It has for years been the practice for this court to grant renewal of licenses to public-houses on the report of the police, who, so far, are certainly the. witnesses best qualified to give a decisive opinion; but the court seems to be ready to annul the licenses, of all second-rate houses, and thus, of itself, override the law of the land. This 7 -a most arbitrary procedure, and reminds one ~«>rt of “ Star Cl,amher” of evil fame.- .«■ would magistrates dare to assume such a prerogative, and it is thus an indication that the war is imminent, and a warning to prepare. The trade has also a hard battle to fight against a certain section of the Press, which now and then erupts into positive animosity, and all the time by pars, and scattered innuendos, tries. to influence public opinion in the direction of wrong and injustice. One is not surprised that the Melbourne “ Age” is pro-

nunent in this section, because nothing else could be expected from the paper’s antecedents, and so it is a matter for congratulation that the journal’s influence is rapidly approaching when there will be “ none so poor as do it reverence.” The trade acknowledges fair and honest criticism from Press, politician, or faddist, but protests against downright lies, ex parte statements, and unjust conclusions. It acknowledges, too. that there are many things which need reform. It claims, and justly claims, that no body of men—teetotallers, faddists, religionists—is more anxious to effect those necessary reforms than it is itself, and that the reforms would be effected reasonably, rationally, loyally, if ordinary trust was confided in the bona fides of its members. But it is altogether a different thing if thousands of men and women are to find their means of living threatened, their capital confiscated, and all their future prospects wrecked by irresponsible madness. And this is just what is meant by the attitude of the Governments of the States towards the publicans. It is a personal, not a judicious and logical, antagonism the teetotallers display towards the publicans, and the Governments-I—especially 1 —especially is this true in Victoria- —seem willing to take advantage of this blind animosity to dodge the responsibilities which are theirs by right of everything that has gone before. The principle of compensation was the accepted and acknowledged policy of the country, but it is now repudiated because Treasurers have to find the money to pay a just debt. That the teetotal animosity is personal is plain from the fact that while teetotallers do not care a jot for the money to be paid—this was manifest from what they proclaimed from the housetop years ago—nothing will now content them but the absolute ruin of those they persecute. It is the yae 'victim, the delenda est Carthago cries, which have come down to us through the persecuting, immoral ages. We have, however, to look things straight in the face. There is no doubt but that the people, especially of Victoria, regard with well-grounded apprehension the cost of blotting out large numbers of public-houses. They are well aware that the teetotal party is always ready to snatch a vote which may entail a big disbursement on the country, and that” as the trade is always supine and unready, this disbursement might be made so large by accumulation of differ-

ent polls, that it would-threaten even the financial stability “'of the State. The public has certainly little active sympathy with the trade, and, to some extent, listens to the voice of the charmer when the fanatic preaches to it to button up its pocket. The publican cannot afford to fight a parsimonious public, and so, if he has to submit to the inevitable law of the survival of the fittest, he must just let himself down as lightly as he can.

It has been proved to demonstration in every part of the civilised world that the volume of trade in alcohol is not decreased —if it is not increased—by the partial or even total suppression of pub-lic-houses. Partial, or indeed total, suppression is no remedy for the disease of drunkenness. The student of human nature —and we have it on authority that man himself is the best study for man—would expect nothing else, because the same was true of the human animal when he emerged from the stone age. until now, when he crowds the public-houses on a Sunday, simply because there is a paltry, puerile, petty little law to be broken.

This has to be admitted, and it is plain that if a number of public-houses are shut, the survivors benefit from their neighbours’ effacement. The radius that will cover all those who share in this advantage may be but small, but all within it have a just right to contribute to the cost of the proceedings which favoured them. • If. then, the principle of compensation is to be maintained, as in justice it must, for the sake of the trade and the public, some scheme must be found by which a part of the burden will_fall on the surviving houses. We have already touched on this point before, and are much gratified to learn that our remarks were received with general favour. We do not think such a scheme would be difficult to formulate, but. of course, we are not the people, who can be sunnosed to elaborate details.

Another way by which money could be raised is by increasing licensing fees all over the country. There is nothing objectionable in this—no confiscation, no raucous persecution of worthy citizens. It is simply that the public has decreed that certain businesses should . be suppressed, and that those most interested in the suppression are willing to undertake the cost. Besides, there are other ways by which such quasi-voluntary contributions could be supplemented without directly affecting the public purse, and

we are sure that any such scheme laid before the public would commend itself to universal favour, because of Its inherent justice, its suitability to the conditions we are under, and, above all, because the trade will prove by its readiness to undertake the internal reforms, the necessity of which is admitted on all sides.

If it was possible to infuse a little common sense into the crass stupidity of dogmatic teetotalism, we should appeal to the Hunts and Vales to take a reasonable view of things, but we doubt it would be useless to cultivate such a barren field. We are thoroughly persuaded that a new revelation would hardly convince these impracticables, who persuade themselves that they, and they only, can be right in what they do. But if they cannot be persuaded, the moderate men can, and they are the kind’s of the community. The duty of the trade is to show itself now possessed of the “ sweet reasonableness” which commands respect and trust, and by showing that it. will save itself, and even more than itself—it will save that personal independence which seems likely to be frittered away from us bit by bit, until we have lost all the heritages of freedom our fathers battled so hard to leave intact to their sons and their sons’ sons.