THE FIGHTING SPIRIT WANTED.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1138, 1 February 1912, Page 20

THE FIGHTING SPIRIT WANTED.

WHAT THE L.V. ASSOCIATIONS SHOULD DO. SOME EXCELLENT SUGGESTIONS. The January 18th issue of the “N.Z. Tribune” contains “An Open Letter” (addressed by “A Student of Events”) to' Mr. J. S. Palmer and the Executive Committee of the N.Z. Licensed Victuallers’ Association” that contains some excellent suggestions. The writer begins by pointing the moral that “the 'battle has not been too satisfactory,” so far as the licensed victuallers are concerned. “The ranks of the ‘enemy’ have swelled; yours have grown also. But . . . you as a body are hounded and decried. Religious bodies or their representatives, wait on you for their support, but they damn you in their business, and ostracise you socially . . . And you put up with it and the process year in and year out continues . . .

Is it not time that you should demand a change in the law that would make such things impossible?” There is more of this sort of thing, and then conies the advice that the L.V. Association should put the licensed business on such a plane that its cause becomes that of the general public,” and, says the writer, “You cannot do that better than by demanding a Bill, Whfch will embody the proposals which your own Executive recommended in 1909 . . . Once secure the passage of a law with these proposals, and a new era will have dawned which will ’bring gladness and hope into the hearts of every man in the Trade.” Beyond this the hotelkeepers are urged to recognise that their object must be the good of their country and of ther fellow men. “You all hate intemperance in word or act,” the letter proceeds. “Every hotel should have temperance for its motto, and temperance means selfcontrol and moderation,” whch is recognised “in the region of the appetites,” and should also be enforced “in the use of language. You allow . men who are the agents of some religious organisation to enter ■ your bars, to collect money, to sell newspapers, and then, -when they are outside they call yourselves, your clients, and your business the most opprobrious epithets. You are maligned from pulpits, from platforms, and from the Prohibition Press You know the extent to which this kind of thing has developed in America. Read the Revd. Billy’s Sunday sermons. You would almost suppose that man had Beelzebub, or Goodet’s anti-Christ Jew as his professor in the use of filth. We have often something like it in New Zealand. For the sake of public morality, common decency, and especially • for the sake of the younger generation, you should meet these persistent liars and sheet the offence home to them. Talk by innuendo, and giving personal attributes to impersonal things, to avoid law courts as these people do is cowardly, immoral, and should not be tolerated without protest and exposure. A higher public tone is wanted, and it should be your object to obtain it.” * « « All this is in keeping with the advice tendered by this journal to hotel licensees and others engaged in the business for years past. There has been too much of the “taking things lying down” spirit, both about the L.V. Associations and their members. The 1909 proposals embody reforms that have been long needed, and that, if effected, would restore confidence in and rehabilitate the Trade generally. The other side does not want reform; the whole of its energies are bent upon annihilating the licensed hotelkeepers business, and its allied interests. And past successes have so emboldened them that their bearing, language, and methods in dealing with the business are as unscrupulous and as dishonest as the day is long.. Unless the L.V. Association is up and doing very shortly, “a better morning” will never set in for the Trade in New Zealand.