CURRENT TOPICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1792, 17 March 1888, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

How best to give adequate effect to the intentions of the Legislature as expressed m that "part of the Licensing Act which provides for the issue of what are known as " prohibition orders " m the case of persons who are injuring themselves, or their familiee, by an excessive indulgence m intoxicating liquors has long been a puzzle to the Bench, to the police, and to the public. The difficulty of enforcing these orders is well known, sometimes arising from the fact that the prohibitee cannot readily be identified by all vendors of potent beverages, but more often from the fact that there arc always silly, ignorant, or " sympathising " persons who are willing to act as go-betweens, that is to say, to do the purchasing on behalf of the prohibited person. Of course, true sympathy would dictate an entirely opposite course of conduct, but the species of sympathy we refer to is that of those whose fellow-feeling inspires their mistaken kindness, and is of the quality of the affection which existed between Tarn O'tfhanter and his trusty crony, who, as Burns tells us, loo'ed the Souter " like a very brither " for the cogent reason set forth m the following line of the couplet, which records the fact that " They had been fou for weeks thegither." While there are so many sympathisers of this sort, we fear that prohibition orders will continue to be, to a large extent, inoperative, and it is well worth considering whether the law should not be amended so as to make the prohibitee as well as the publican punishable for breach of the Magistrate's order. If the licensed vendor is to bo punished (and he should be) for supplying contrary to law, so also should the prohibited person be punished for attempting to obtain contrary to law. At present the penalty falls only upon the one party to an illegal transaction m which there must necessarily be two parties engaged. A Tiraaru hotelkeeper the other day endeavoured to ascertain whether the prohibitee is not reachable under the law as it now stands. He had been charged recently with supplying liquor, or rather allowing it to be supplied on his licensed premises, to one J. L. Smith, againbt whom a prohibition order was m force, but the information was dismissed upon B being shown that he (the licensee) had no guilty knowledge, and an information against the barmaid, the actual supplier, was withdrawn on the same ground. The hotelkeeper now sought to turn the tables by laying an information against Smith for " procuring the commission of an offence punishable by summary conviction." The fact was established by the evidence, but the Magistrate held that the Act did not provide for such a conviction as was sought by the action, and dismissed the case. Probably Capt Wray was right m that view, but we think that it would be very well if the Act were amended so as to admit of the punishment of a prohibitee for himself breaking, and for attempting to induce others to break the law. The Australian colonies are evidently about to undergo all the unpleasantnesses known so long m California under the term of the " Yellow Agony." Indeed, some of them are already threatened with incursions of hordes of Celestials, and are taking vigorous measures to prevent the European "population being swamped out by the incoming tide. And who can blame them ? So long as the proportion of Chinese is as small as it is m New Zealand there is nothing to complain of. A few of them are useful m the neighborhood of our cities as market gardeners, an occupation for which they have an especial aptitude 1 , but when as threatens to be the case (but for prohibitive measures) m some of the sister colonies they become a large element m the population troubles of many sorts must follow. Their habits are not cleanly, and when they congre • gate together the Chinese quarter speedily becomes a hot-bed of disease, while their immorality is also another source of danger. Besides all this they compete with European labor to the disadvantage of the latter, as a Chinaman can live on food upon which an Englishman would starve. Worst of all, they do not add to the wealth of the country bat rather deplete it, as they carry off all their savings to the Flowery land. It is quite natural therefore that the cry " The Chinese must go" should become, ag it is becoming, a political watchword m Queensland and New South Wales, and that concerted action by all the colonies should be proposed. On the other hand it is not surprising that difficulties tire encountered m giving effect to this, and it was only to be expected that China would remonstrate against exceptional legislation as against Chinese subjects. A protest, as will be seen by our cable news, has already been made by the Chinese Ambassador m London, on the ground that such lejps"lation is m breach of treaty obligations between England and China, and it will be interesting to watch how far the colonies chiefly affected will agree to allow themselves to be bound by such obligations between the Mother Country and the ancient Eastern Empire. We observe that there is a rumor afloat among the population of the "big wooden box" on the Wellington reclaimed ground to the effect that the two Commissioners, who with the imported Chief Commissioner are to form the new Kailway Board, will be chosen from among the following three gentlemen, viz. Mr O'Connor, Under-Secre-tary for Public Works, Mr Maxwell and Mr Hannay. For choice we should 'prefer Messrs O'Connor and Hannay, bat we are sorry to see that it is hinted that the selection is to be made from among so narrow a range of names. Given any two of these three, plus a professional railway man from Home, and the odds are that things will go on very much m the old groove, whereas m many matters we need an entirely new departure. We should be better pleased, and so we venture to think would the public at large if less of the old leaven remained. Say, for example, that Mr Hannay were appointed, so as to give the »ew Board continuity of experience, and that the third seat were given to some practical man outside the department, such a man for instance as Mr E. Q-. Wright, who besides possessing a good deal of technical knowledge would also bring to bear upon the question of railway management an intimate acquaintance witi) the needs of the country

settlers and the facilities necessary to give an impetus to colonial industries, We hope that it is not too late yet for the Government to consider the advisability of appointing as the third Commissioner some gentleman who possesses these qualification?.