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Dunstan Times, Issue 442, 7 October 1870, Page 2

The movement in tie cause of temperance, which is making such progress all over the goldfields, must he viewed by every right-thinking mind with uumingled satisfaction. W he retemperance has taken practical effect on the goldfields, its benefits are obvious, and we can point out no more satisfactory instance than that at Alexandra. There we find men who, three years sgo, were -steeped to the dregs in poverty, by the disuse of intoxicating liquors, now in positions of comfortable independence. Hovels (which once did duty as dwellings) have been substituted by neat and well-furnished cottages, inhabited by happy wives and rosy children, living witnesses of the blessing to bs derived from temperance. The example so worthily set by Alexandra has been followed elsewhere. Naseby, Lawrence, and Queenstown now possess their temperance societies, the good effects of which are .plainly apparent. Cromwell gives promise of following up the movement, and we hope Clyde will not lie belliud-hand in so good a cause The money expended upon strong drinks on the goldfields is something enormous, and if it could only be diverted to the purchase of more substantial necessaries, good clothing, or the improvement of dwellings or the development of our mineral and agricultural resources, it is positively beyond conjecture what a prosperous and happy community wo might be As the annual meeting of the Licensing Benches will be held in the course of a few weeks the Magistrates might materially aid in the great cause by refusing to license public-houses kept in an improper manner, or by people of questionable repute, or where the accommodation or description of the building is unfitted for the purposes ol au hotel. If hotelkeepers are to be charged a heavy license fee fur the privilege of carrying on their bnsi less, it is nothing more than fair that they should be protected from the compe trpon of unlicensed vendors of spirits, which latter are the real cause of most of the drunkenness we now deplore The indiscriminate issue of bottle licenses also demands attention, a bottle license being, in numerous instances, merely a subterfuge to illicit!' retail nobblers. The business of au hotelkeeper, when legitimately pro-

secured, is as honorable as any other calling; but, when such is not the case, it becomes objectionable. The hotelkeeper supplies what must be considered a necessary of life—or which custom has rendered such—but it is against the immoderate use of alcoholic liquors that we '‘'have to protest. On the Victorian goldfields, sly-grog selling has been suppressed to a very large extent, and the same can be accomplished here if our Magistrates only vvillit, and view the matter of the issue of publicans’ licenses mere as affecting the morals ot the people than as a means of revenue. It may appear hard to refuse a person permission to engage in a busioe s which he has elected and made preparations to carry on. Circumstances oftentimes alter cases, but to do a great right, it is sometimes necessary to do a little wrong.