A PLEA FOR THE PUBLICAN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1112, 3 August 1911, Page 21

A PLEA FOR THE PUBLICAN.

Says “John Bull” (London): —One of the meanest of the hypocrisies with which recent taxes on the Trade were bolstered up was that which pretended that the Chancellor was going to get at the fountain head —tax the brewer and distiller —and remove some of the gross hardships suffered by “tied-house tenants.” There is not a parson, magistrate, Cabinet

< Minister, member of Parliament, or person in any position of trust in the kingdom whose character suffers so searching an investigation as does that of the holder of a public-house license, and the least stain or flaw debars him from holding it. Police inquiries are made into his life for five to seven years prior to his application for a license, his testimonials are rigorously investigated, and unless he is in every way absolutely sans reproche his application is refused. His business necessitates his watchful care from early morn till night, and he must permit no drunken or disorderly persons to use his premises. He has to be a physiognomist, a medical man and a pugilist, all in one, and be able to hustle the strongest navvy out of the tap-room should he start a row and refuse to leave. Nonconformist Chadbands and temperance fanatics, with foul mendacity, invariably picture the publican as a bloated being whose one aim is to encourage drunkenness whereas if they took the trouble to inquire, observe, and had the thinking capacity to form an honest opin'on, they would know that the drunken man is the publican’s worst enemy and the one

he loathes, because —apart from the trouble he creates —a drunken or quarrelsome person will clear a bar of customers as quickly as a cry of “Fire!” empties a theatre. What justification, then, is there for this persistent persecution of the publican and the driving of so many honest men out of a necessary and legitmate calling, ruined by harsh taxation?