The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MAY 17, 1892. Shebeens in Wales

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 137, 17 May 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MAY 17, 1892. Shebeens in Wales

Expecting to abolish the " drinking customs of Society " by closing a public house, is about as wise as expecting to cure the awall pox by knocking off the head of a pimple. In the Welsh Review of March Ist an article appeared describing the practice of shebeening as carried on in Cardiff. The following are the facts : — " Cardiff is a seaport, with a population of 130,000. It has its Constabulary, with a Chief Constable of capacity and resolution. Its police force consists of 160 men, or about one to every 800 of the population. In addition to the Watch Committee and its Chief Constable and its 160 police, there are in Cardiff 110 churches and chapels of different denominations, making one church for every 1,200 of the population. For the aale of strong drink there are 180 licensed public-houses, or one to every 700 of the population. All these houses are scrupulously closed every Sunday in the year according to law. So far as the publicans are concerned, the Welsh Sunday Closing Act is rigorously enforced, nor is there any suggestion that the Sunday Closing Act haa not entirely suppressed the sale of drink m licensed premises in Cardiff as in the rest of Wales." But by closing the licensed houses twelve hundred schebeens did a lively business on Sunday. In four months one hundred and twenty-two persons were convicted of selling drink illegally on Hundays within the Borough of Cardiff. Thie is a proof , at once of the extent of the evil and the vigor of the police in endeavouring to stop it. As a remedy the writer suggested : — 11 The police force will have to be increased, unless local public spirit con Id raise for the occasion a corps ofspecial constables, enrolled for the sole purpose of ' sup Dressing the schebeens. Then, again, I must say that the attitude of the churches seems to be somewhat deplorable in this matter. If the church is to fold its arms in despair because the people are heathen, ifc had better be logical and repeal the Sunday Closing Act. Twelve hundred or 500 shebeens, in which men and women get drunk on Sunday, must surely do more harm to morality and temperance than 180 public-houses which are only opened for a few hours each Sunday, and which are under supervision. This article provoked an attack on the writer by a temperance leader, and Mr Stend, the clever editor of the Eeview of Eeviews to whom we are indebted by the above extract, cou--1 eludes by saying the publication of this article has been followed by another attack upon him by the man who of all others in Cardiff ought to have moat h&artly seconded his appeal. But Cardiff is not the oaiy place iv which the worst foes of the temperance cause are to be found among these who are the professional but intemperate advocates of temperance.