The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3783, 30 August 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1883.

"All cry and little wool " just about ex- ' presses the measurement of the utility of the clauses in the Licensing Act that owe their origin to the efforts of Good Templars. An inordinate craving of the few to regulate the lives of the many is the distinguishing character of "faddists," nnd, perhaps, the teetotal faddist has made himself tho noisiest of all. If the eternal welfare of the whole world had depended on ' having elective licensing committees there could not havo been more fuss made to secure the change in the law. Nothing would satisfy Sir AY. Fox and his following than small licensing districts and elective j. committees. They succeeded in getting what they wanted, and what good has it done '{ In what way has it advanced the cause of temperance ? That the alteration r was not wanted by the people, nor taken advantage of by teetotallers, has been shown by tho return asked for by Mr Sutton and presented to Parliament, From this we learn that the colony is divided into 309 licensing districts ; of these 125 never troubled themselves to elect committees at all: 139 allowed any persons who chose to go on to the committees ; and in only 105 districts wero there any contested elections, ' that is to say, in which the object of the law was carried out. At tho last elections of committees in Napier the Good Templar party never stirred hand nor foot in tho « matter, and it was only owing to the excrr tioi.B of the licensed victuallers, at the last moment, that the elections did not lapse. Aud tliis, it may bo presumed, was exactly ! the case with the whole 139 districts where no contested elections took piijcp, In the 125 districts where there were no elections at all tho old nominees of tho Government most probably returned to office, and continued to fulfil their functions to the satisfaction of all concerned. Thus it will be seen that, 3 through the clamoring of a few noisy faddists, the law was altered, in this respect at great expense to the country, and that L * the alteration was only taken advantage of 1 by loss than one-third of the total number of the licensing districts. The result goes to show that the amendment of tho old r Act, in the matter of the si~o of the districts and'of elective committees, was pot needed. ) It is extrcmelv doubtful, indeed, whether, on the whole,'the committees are composed s of better men for the duties they are called upon to perform than when the committees were nominated by the Government. The s old system, at all events, had the merit of saving the expenses incidental to elections, > aud of satisfying the wants of the country. People who indulge in crochets are certainly not to be trusted to discern the wants of the country ', and it is to be hoped that, t when next the Good Templars, or any other fad associates, clamor for the satisfaction of their pet ideas, they will not be listened to.