THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1881. WORKING MEN’S CLUBS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2232, 28 May 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1881. WORKING MEN’S CLUBS.

Thebe is one particular part of the Premier’s speech, apart altogether from the political portion of it, to which we desire to refer. That is where he touches upon a question which ere long we foresee will be a very important social one. We refer to the proposed licensing and supervision of so-called Working Men’s Clubs. In using the words “ socalled,” we desire at once to say that no reference is intended to the one in Christchurch. That is a bond fide Working Men’s Club, started and supported by working men, not as a drinking shop, but as a place where they can meet and interchange opinions on the current topics of the day. But it is not so in other parts of the colony. We are told by the Premier—and his words are borne out by official reports—that these institutions are in other cities merely and solely drinking shops, opened by persons who have either been refused a license, or who do not care to undergo the ordeal of applying for one. Now every rightthinking man—even the most ardent supporters of Working Men’s Clubs—cannot hut see that this is a great evil. It allows the growing np in onr midst of an insidnons evil, the more dangerous because disguised under a high-sounding title, which would strike at the root of the self-respect of the people. Practically, in places such as those referred to by the Premier, there is no restraint. Liquor may he sold from daylight to dark, and to daylight again, without let or hindrance, which our readers will agree with ns is not a desirable state of things. What the Government now propose to do is not to interfere arbitrarily with these institutions—not to crush them out of existence by repressive legislation, bnt to introduce such salutary chocks as will prevent them being made use of by unscrupulous persons for objects entirely foreign to their purpose. That there is intended to he even-handed dealing in this matter is proved by the fact that not alone Working Men’s Clubs, hut Clubs of all kinds where practically liquor is retailed without a license, will come under the proposed legislation. Such a step is no doubt surrounded by a number of difficulties which at first sight may appear almost unsnrmountahle. Bnt once let the principle be affirmed that the Government shall have the right to exercise over these institutions such an amount of control which, without being arbitrary or oppressive, shall conduce to the welfare of the people, and these difficulties will disappear. We trust, therefore, that the Government will introduce the legislation shadowed forth by the Premier, and we feel sure that such bond fide institutions as the Christchurch Working Men’s Clnb, and others in the colony of a similar calibre, will see that this is for their good and for placing them on a sounder and broader basis.