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Evening Star, Issue 3280, 25 August 1873, Page 2

We are in danger, in Dunedin, of placing too much faith in opinions based upon imperfect or interested information. Not only is this apparent in the formation of companies, but in matters of general interest bearing upon our social and moral well-being. This habit of trusting to others instead of instituting rigid inquiries before deciding how to act, is constantly bearing fruit in leading to individual loss and social complications. So long as this habit prevails will the public rest content to leave advocacy or opposition to any raeasuie to the few, without reflecting that, in all proposed changes, those who imagine they are likely to be damaged by them will be loud and clamorous in their antagonism in proportion to the extent of the anticipated danger. We read this morning, in a Journal that has the peculiar faculty of being always opposed to what is for the good of Dunedin and the Province, an article intended to damage efforts in favor of improving our licensing system by a tirade against the Maine Liquor Law. It may be that the Maiue Law is a failure, and yet that our system is faulty and requires alteration. No one who has the slightest knowledge of the abuses of our licensing benches, and is free from ulterior motives, will advocate the continuance of things as they are. We are inclined to think too mndi stress is laid upon prohibitory laws as a means of curing drunkenness ; and that too little attention has been given to amusements conducted by and connected with public houses. The multiplication of hotels under our present system is an evil, for it reduces the chance of all being well conducted. The higher class houses, through profits being interfered with by temptations unscrupulously presented to frequent less reputable establishments, are compelled, in self-defence, to wink at or sanction proceedings that would not otherwise be allowed. It is therefore equally the interest of respectable licensed victuallers to advocate a reform, as it is that of the public to demand it. Experience proves that Justices of the Peace are not the parties to decide upon licenses to be granted; and that it should be remitted to persons not likely to be swayed in their judgments by merchants and dealers anxious to sell their liquor to the occupant of a newly-erected house. If the Maine Liquor Law has failed to check drunkenness, society is no worse than it was before it was passed. Drunkenness was indulged in before it became law, and, so far as the vice is concerned, we do not see that it matters to the drunkard individually, or to society, whether he indulged in a public-house, a friend’s house, or his own. Notwithstanding the maudlin sentimentalism talked and written about it, we believe the last preferable The probability is that he would be drunk half-a-dozen times at a public-house to once at home. If, therefore, the Maine Liquor Law is a failure, things are no worse than they were. It only proves that people in the State of Maine drink now as hard as they did before. But we are inclined to believe they ai-e better than they would have been, because it is impossible to move forcibly in a right direction without carrying some portion of the masses with you. It may be that opponents are dragged from their hiding places, as in the case of the Daily Times, and make noisy and baseless affirmations; but the very fact of a law being enacted in a free legislature is proof that the principle has taken deep hold of the public mind. The opponents of just and equitable laws invariably impute sins as their effects which may or may not exist ; but they forget they are only modifications of, or perhaps comparatively mild forms of those that existed before the law came into force. The opponents of the Ballot predicted it would lead to lying and corruption, as if those evils were unknown before, and were not a necessary result of open voting,: and when the Bev, George Putnam, D.D., said the pro-; hibitory law produced demoralisation : and disrespect for a law which is not,' and cannot be enforced,” he only spoke q f a form of social disease, that prior to fts being passed existed in so Virulent a form, not only against one law, but ail, that the Maine Law was passed with the intention of effecting a cure, j It would be just as reasonable to .charge the continuance of small-pox upon the practice of vaccination, because it still exists, as to conclude no benefit has resulted to the State of Maine from its liquor law, v because there are people who get drunk, perjure themselves, and; set the law at defiance as they did before. The secret of the opposition of the Times is only another phase of the Fox-VoGEL-phobia, which has led that journal into so many and such serious mistakes.