The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1888. Whiskey Mills

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 90, 1 March 1888, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1888. Whiskey Mills

No doubt the approach of winter with its accompanying frosts, bleak winds, snow drifts, and ice, is the cause of an agitation lately commenced in the Otagon village of Milton. To the minds of the hyperboreans who, by a strange contradiction, inhabit that portion of the South Island, extreme coldness of climate can only be ameliorated, or qualified by the plentiful internal exhibition of strong whiskey. In order to gratify this natural or acquired taste to the top of their bent, with a shrewd eye towards cheapness and economy at the same time, a public meeting was held at Milton the other day, at which resolutions were unanimously adopted affirming the desirableness of encouraging local distillation by the increase of the import duty, and the reduction in excise, or both. The good people who adopted these resolutions may, or may not, have been aware that the distilleries established some years ago, and dosed after a brief but expensive existence, were failures pure and simple, Not so much perhaps, because they did not distil good enough liquor, but from the simple fact their trade was smothered by the numerous illicit stills started in opposition and which have, no doubt, in many instances survived even to this day. The whiskey distillery worm is the worm that never dies. The folly of increasing the import duty on spirits has been proved times without number, but we suppose the same ground will have to be gone over as often again so long as the race of fools continue to exist. The higher (he import duty, the greater encouragement to smugglers. The amount already annually lost to the revenue by this means is something enormous, and should the reward be made still more tempting by a higher tariff, the time may came when the receipts at the Customs for spirit duty will be infinitesimal. We believe in the judicious encouragement of local industries, but we draw the line at Otago whiskey distilleries. Neither the people of Otago, nor the colony as a whole, require them, and we believe if the summer season had been milder, we would never have heard a word on the subject. We hope the Government will steadily oppose the movement, and promptly reject any proposals in the direction indicated.