TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3127, 6 July 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 1881.

In reference to the Licensing Bill the Dunedin Star remarks that Mr Barron will have done good service if the new clause which, on his motion, has been added to the Licensing Bill becomes law and can be carried into effect. It is notorious that all kinds of rubbish is openly sold in bottles bearing the labels of well-known firms in the United Kingdom ; and we believe in fact, that it is no secret with the initiated that a regular trade is carried on in the manufacture of spurious labels and capsules. Many of the victims of intemperance owe their condition to the poisonous concoctions vended as Hennessy, Martel, or as favorite brands of whisky. No doubt, a very trifling exercise of common sense on the part of the community would soon reduce to a minimum this disreputable and mischievous traffic. Those who purchase Hennessy's brandy at a price below quotations in the Home market, or expect to get Found Scotch whisky at I Glasgow prices, need not be much surprised if they experience the sensation described in an American paper as that of " a torchlight procession going down their throats." Mr Barron proposes very severe penalties on persous " selling, purchasing, or contracting to sell or purchase" labels for the purpose of labelling bottles containing liquor, unless such labels have imprinted thereon the words " bottled in New Zealand." Should his proposals, as we hope they may, become law, the law may possibly reach this class of offenders ; but we have grave doubts as to whether the persons — and their name is legion—who use the labelled bottles which have contained the genuine article can be effectively dealt with under the penal clause drafted to that effect. Conviction in such cases would be exceedingly difficult, since most exact imitations of capsules and corks are obtainable. No matter how careful the Home and foreign manufacturers may be, and with what safeguards they may edge their business in the way of peculiarly shaped or* marked bottles, this unfortunately deception. The Adulteration Act, w^pjlTa^e^^iwall* been seriously way, might do litt^pbittirtaerlll6" stamping out of tMramnfflTfPwm »f~ commercial robbeja^p^H¥ : afe some of ™*£ spiciously exposed for saie,^f*gleatqj#gf ; on the shelves of those guardians of public'

morality—the licensed vituallers, should be occasionaly subjected to scientific analysis and compared in its various elements with the liquor professed on its label. We conceive that the result might cause a shock to the systems of many topers and moderate consumers when they find what they have been imbibing under the name of " Three-star," " Old Glenlivet," etc. The Licensing Bill, it will be noted, has been finally disposed of in the House of Representatives. The new class of license introduced on the motion of Mr Pitt, of Nelson, " the accommodation house license," will have the effect of legalising

a business, which in thinly-populated out-of-the-way districts, is notoriously carried on io spite of the law. The licensees will have no fee to pay, but will be under the obligation to keep in repair a certain bit of road or a bridge in their immediate neighborhood, and they will be constrained to provide good accommodation for travellers. A very necessary coudition, as all travellers in the- -' iuterior will agree.