NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1611, 19 April 1879, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND.

[pEßSfc AGENtiT.J Wellington, April 18. , In the case of Travers and Duncan v Hadfleld, the jury agreed to the issues, and the law points of the case will now be argued out in Banco. The Education Board decided to utilise the services of Mrs Holmes to teach the school teachers drawing during Saturday, so that they may be able to teach the children under them. Mrs Holmes has high testimonials for efficiency. Dunedin, April 18. The immigration authorities here are constantly receiving applications for employment of single gilds, and as soon as a ship arrives the depot is at once rushed. The Westland, which may shortly bs expected, has no less than eighty-two single women on board, and these should satisfy the market for a time, at least. By the San Francisco mail to-day there were forwarded from Dunedin, under the nominated system of immigration, applications for 255 souls, equal to 213 statute adults. These applications were received between March 22nd and April 18th, and make the largest return ever forwarded for a like period. The female immigrants by the Stad Haarlem, five in number, were engaged at Caveraham Barracks to-day, at from £25 to £3O per year. The men, who are an excellent sample of farm labourers, will be open for engagement to-morrow. [FROM OUE OWN COERESEONDENT.J Timartj, April 18. The accident to the stem crane was repaired J'esterday, and to-day another lot of blocks were aid. The depth of water at the end of the breakwater now is about four feet at low water. When another fifty feet have been completed it will be in ten feet at low tide. Major Withers having completed his Inspecticnof Volunteers in the South, arrived here, en route for Wellington, to-dsy. He expresses himself as being greatly pleased with them on the whole. tiouth Canterbury educational returns for the last quarter show 27cl children on the roll as compared with 2663 last quarter; fifty-eight teachers are employed and one new school has been opened. The attendance would have been much larger but for the prevalence of typhoid fever, which is still increasing at an alarming rate. In one hotel at Waimate, a few days since, there were no less than nine cases. The football season will be opened by the South Canterbury Football Club to-morrow. About thirty new members have already been enrolled. Hamersley is captain and Fraser deputy captain. . A public meeting was held at Waimate last night to consider a complaint made by three members of the County Council that they could not work with their colleagues, as anything they proposed waslsafe to be outvoted by the others. They were advised to go back and try to establish more cordial relations with the rest, and if this was found impossible, the ratepayers would judge between them.

[Press Special Wire.]

Auckland, April 18. Settling up and paying over the monies won at the Autumn Meeting took place to-night. The following amounts were paid overMclvor, £lsl 17s; Leonards, £142 10s; Rutherford, £95 ; Hunt, £95; Walters, £BS ; Thorpe, £53; Thorpe, £3B; Allen, £2B; Morrin, £l4; H. Walker, £l3; McGee, £9 10s; McDonald, £s l4s ; Day, £2 17»; Hockey, £118s; lennox, 19s. Mr J. M. Clarke was elected chairman of the Board of Education, ut, Campbell declining to stand. Muitai Te Rangi Rahiki, a Rotorua chief, has written a letter contradicting the statement that he had threatened to expel all Europeans from Ohinemutu in consequence of the threatened Government prosecution against Mr Robert Graham. A letter from Taranaki says the attitude of the Waimate Natives is extremely vicious, and predicts mischief. No surveyor dares to go over the ground. The same letter (a private one) mentions that Mr Allan Douglas, a Government official residing at Taranaki, was honored a few days ago by an intimation of his promotion to a Dunedin office, and such was his joy at the good news that he was immediately afflicted with a paralytic stroke, and is in serious danger of his life. The Opera Company contract has been broken, and the company are left without any moans to return to their homes in Sydney, for which purpose they propose to get up a benefit. Wellington, April 18.

A gentleman who has been exploring in the Tararua ranges, near Masterton, and who intends making further explorations, took some specimens supposed to be of gold bearing quartz and also a specimen of copper orstothe Museum for Dr Hector to test It appears that the ore can bo obtained in thousands of tons. There is, however, some doubt ns to the value of the socalled auriferous quartz, though it has withstood some testa. An assay will shortly be made in each case Another person called with a different specimen of copper ore, and unnaistakeably very rich, but as he declined to name the locality where it was obtained, no assay of (he sample will bo made.

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE.

A public meeting was held last night in the Provincial Council Chamber, in connection with the Now Zeahmd Alliance, for the reformation of the existing liquor law. The Eight Rev. the Primate occupied the chair. The attendance was very moderate, consisting principally of the clergy and those more directly interested in the Temperance movement. The Rev. H. 0. M. Watson said the present meeting was called in consequence of a resolution which had been passed at a meeting held last week in St. John’s schoolroom. They had established a branch of the New Zealand Alliance in Christchurch, in connection with the main body, and the meeting had been called for its formal inauguration and for the purpose of passing certain resolutions which would be submitted to them in the course of the nieetihg. Ho had much pleasure in announcing that his Lordship the Primate had consented to take the chair, and he would now leave him to open the proceedings. His Lordship said he felt greatly complimented that he had been Called oti to take the chair, as he thoroughly sympathised, with the objects bt the xneetlrlg, and while he did. not altogether advocate tne total abolition of all alcoholic liquor, still he deplored its abuse. He agreed that the more the question was brought before the public the greater was the chance of checking the spread of intoxication. Ho considered that when a man drank to excess he deprived himself of his reason and forfeited the dignity and characteristics of a man. and those who would keep up that dignity should do their host to check and restrain those propensities. He would therefore cooperate to limit the temptations that led to intemperance. It had been said that passing a Permissive Bill would interfere with the liberty of the subject, but this was not really the case. From another point of view, no man should consider he lived only for himself, even if he had no family; there were duties that he owed tb the Commnnity to which he belonged, Itfo one had a rignt to deprive that community of the share in his talent and his labor which they were entitled to, and an intemperate man did not contribute either his time, industry, or labor, for the good of his fellow men. It was time then that the community should put a limit to the sale of intoxicating liquors, and so lessen the temptations to intemperance. A drunken man had no control over hinlself, and thoroughly selfish and forgetful of the harm done to those near and dear to him. He (the Primate) would therefore be glad to lend his co-operation to obtain from the Government an alteration of the law so as to assist those unhappy ones laboring under this great weakness to do their duty in the station of life to which they had been called, to their friends and relatives, and on these grounds the movement would have his hearty co-operation. He then called on the Hon. W. Pox to address the meeting. Mr Pox said that the Chairman had placed a view of the question before him with which he fully sympathised the effect of the presentation of temptation before the weak. The argument he had used was a sound one, viewed from its practical aspect, and the influence of the evil he had alluded to on society. The cause of it was to be found in the undue multiplication of the public-house of the period. Nine-tenths of the excessive drinkinggoing on came out of the public-houses. Drunkards were not made in private houses, and it was the frequenters of the former that filled the gaols, lunatic asylums, and refuges, ar d the remedy was to be sought in that direction and in the system of licensing them. No license was required to sell the other necessaries of life, but so dangerous was the liquor traffic that the law had made it an exceptional one, and deemed it right to fix a limit to it. The law has enacted that no man shall sell drink without he has received a license to do so from the licensing commissioners appointed by the Government, and when that license wits obtained they could deal in those articles as with any other commodity. The method was this. The Licensing Bench came round not once but four times a-year to receive applications from those who wished to obtain a license to keep a public-house. They had to enquire first —Was the applicant a man qualified to keep a public-house and to sell intoxicating drinks ? It was their duty to decide on his qualifications. A man might be qualified to fulfil the duties of a member of Parliament, hut yet not to keep a publichouse, A felon who had fulfilled his sentence might, if they chose, be selected by the electors to represent them, but no licensing Bench could place him in the position of a licensed victualler; in fact, higher qualifications were required for that privilege than were needed to become a member of Parliament. The former needed to possess a delicate perception of character. He was bound to ascertain at a glance, and at the risk of losing his license, how much a man asking for liquor could carry without becoming intoxicated. The next point for the consideration of the Licensing Bench was the eligibility of the house to sell drink in. any house might do for a temperance hotel without requiring to bo licensed, but a public house was required to be a house among houses, with a variety of special accommodation for the convenience of the public; and the third and most important point, and one which the Licensing Bench were totally incapable of deciding, was whether the house was a necessity in the district. This was what they desired to take out of the hands of the Bench. For instance, they might come from a distance, might possibly be strong sympathisers with the traffic, or they might not in any way be able to ascertain whether the license applied for was a necessity ; it was out of the scope of their power to know this. If twenty public houses were in existence in the district, and one more were applied for, how could they tell whether that one more was wanted. They had been granting licenses in the colony for forty years and upwards, and in England for hundreds of years and they had scattered houses broadcast ten times as many as were necessary. The power ought to be placed in other hands, and the question was, whose ? This was a matter not of right or justice, but expediency. The people to ascertain this question, of necessity, were the residents, When it was proposed to build a new house, it was for the residents to say whether thev wanted anything that might demoralise themselves, their neighbors, their wives, and possibly their children. That was what was called a Local Option or Permissive Bill. That was the whole question. Was there anything unconstitutional in this ? There was the privilege of _ local option in other matters ; in the election of school committees, Road Boards, in the matter of striking rates, &c., and why should the desire to be permitted the same privilege with respect to the liquor traffic be regarded as unconstitutional ? Was there anything in the liquor traffic that should deny to the residents the option of deciding whether they required a publichouse or not ? Some people had said it was an attempt to interfere with private liberty, but instead of this it was the licensed victuallers’ public liberty to injure the community that was sought to be interfered with. If such n view were correct, every law that was passed, every rate that was struck, every tax that was imposed, might be considered an interference with private liberty. In 1873 an Act was passed which actually gave two-thirds of the adult population, male and female, in every licensing district the power of vetoing any application. It might be asked why was this power not exercised. The reason was that the Act has made no proper provision for its being carried into effect. There were two fatal defeds—one was the machinery necessary for collecting the votes, the other the area of the districts in which the commissioners had power to act The mistake was that the several districts had been made of such unduly large dimensions that it was impossible to collect the votes of the residents in it. He know one district 100 miles long by forty wide, and it was not possible to work these by private enterprise. They had left the votes to bo collected by a written memorial which could bo hawked about by any private individuals. This memorial many persons objected to sign on several grounds, some from the fear of incurring obloquy, and others because they were afraid, or did not wish to interfere with private interests. He knew a community of Good Templars where

they had only succeed'd in getting seventeen names to the memorial, many refusing to sign for fear of giving offence to their neighbors, or of injuring their own business. In Albert land in the North Island, the Good Templars determined to canvass the district themselves, and in this large district, measuring 100 miles by 40, they had spent £4O, worked for one month with a committee, and they never saw one half of the scattered population, how then could they obtain two - thirds of the inhabitants’ signatures ? They had the right in the statute book to agitate for the removal of the two obstacles he had pointed out, and he would suggest a further clause in the Act to give the people the power of exercising their right. They did not ask for an alteration of the principle, only the power of putting it in force. This might bo done in two ways—one by influencing members, the Other by petitioning Parliament, who would either bring in, of assist in bringing in, a measure to effect the objects he had referred to. Another way could be adopted at the elections, by choosing their candidates according to their principles, but it was of no use trying to influence them when once they were returned. They could be got at when they were canvassing for votes. Ask them whether they were favorable to Mr Fox’s bill. They might reply, “Wo don’t care much about Mr Foi or his bill,” but the reply could be, “ We don’t care much for you or your election.” In conclusion, Mr Fox said all they wanted was the power to carry out the principles already conceded, Mr Fox then moved the following resolutions !—“That this meeting desires to express its satisfaction that the right of the popular control of the liquor traffic has been recognised by our Legislature afld embodied in the existing licensing law, but it is of opinion that further legislation is necessary for making the acknowledged and admitted rights effective.” The Dean of Christchurch, in seconding the resolution, said the movement had his hearty sympathy. He admired the principle for its breadth. It appealed to all the friends of temperance, whether abstainers or noh-abstainers. Mr Fox proposed his resolution as a total abstainer ; he seconded it as a non-abstainer, not to sail under false colors. He admitted that he occasionally took his glass of beer or brandy and water, but he felt so strongly on the subject by what he had seen and knew, that he had felt inclined to become a total abstainer. He believed in strict moderation and endeavoring to provide counteracting influences to intemperance by the establishment of temperance hotels and coffee-hotlses. The Dean referred to the recent floating of the Temperance Hotel Company, and advised all who had not taken up shares to do so at once. He applauded the effort to reform the liquor laws, but it was a mistake to attempt to try and make a man temperate by Act of Parliament, or to nit one man against another. The change sought to be made in the law would weed out the worse houses, and then the owners of those that remained would be more careful what they did. He strongly counselled moderation in agitating, and in voting he thought they should require something more than a bare majority to veto an application for permission to open a public house. The principle of local option being conceded, all they asked for now was the power of carrying it into effect, and all classes could join in advocating this. The Primate then put the first resolution, which was carried unanimously. The Yen. the Archdeacon Dudley, in moving the second resolution, said he differed from the previous speaker, inasmuch as the Dean was only a partial abstainer, whereas he was a thorough-going total abstainer. He, at the advanced age of 74, had abstained for two years, and he found his health all the better for it. The speaker then expatiated on the advantages of temperance on temporal and moral grounds, and cited statistical proofs of the cost of gaols, asylums, and refuges that were maintained principally through the vast prevalence of drinking customs. In addition to this, he commented on the diseases, both of mind and body, that were engendered by the use of alcohol, and argued that it was the interest of the Government to throw no impediments in the way of checking its use. He then moved the second resolution, as follows : —“ That, in the opinion of this meeting, the licensing districts as at present described, are unworkably large, and that they should bo reduced, so that each district should include but one centre of population, and be thus brought within a workable area,”

The Rev. 0. Fraser was the next speaker, and in seconding the motion, spoke eloquently in favor of the necessity of reform in the direction indicated by Mr Pox and the other speakers who had preceded him. He viewed the question from its political, financial, and social aspects, contending that legislative interference was not only permissible but laudable, when it was invoked to check practices that were injurious to the whole community, such as excessive drinking and gambling. In concluding he hoped that, as there were two sides in the House of Representatives, each of them would co-operate in carrying the measure when it was brought before them.

The motion was then put by the Chairman, and, like the preceding one, was carried unanimously. The Primate then called on Mr Phillips, of Lyttelton, to address the meeting. In a few remarks on the evils of intemperance, drawn from an experience of twenty-three years of total abstinence, he proposed the following resolution : —“That tne following gentlemen be an interim committee to co-operate with the interim committee of Dunedin and others His Lordship the Primate, the Yery Rev. the Dean of Christchurch, Yen. Archdeacon Dudley, C. Fraser, W. H. Keast, J. W. Stack; Messrs Bennett, McGregor, Clephane, Geo. Booth, Hoskins, Mills, |Blakiston, Thomson, Gray, Dr. Patrick, and the bon. secretary, with power to add to their number.” The motion was seconded by Mr J. T. Smith, and, on being put to the meeting, was carried.

The Hon. Wm. Fox, in proposing the next resolution, said on the question of compensation which had been alluded to by the Rev. 0. Fraser, that he would be willing to give every licensed victualler ten years’ compensation for the loss of his license and goodwill if he would give compensation for all the injury he had caused during the preceding years. He then proposed a cordial vote of thanks to his Lordship the Primate, for the able and cordial manner in which he had conducted the meeting. The motion was carried by acclamation. The Primate, in a few remarks pertinent to the subject which had been under discussion, returned thanks.