THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1882. THE INQUEST ON B. J. BRADBURN.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2661, 17 October 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1882. THE INQUEST ON B. J. BRADBURN.

We should he sorry to fancy it possible that the views entertained by the management of the White Hart Hotel on the general morality of the publican’s calling can be shared in any way by landlords in general. Christchurch has somewhat of a name for well-conducted hotels, and the various Licensing Committees have done all in their power to impress upon hotel proprietors the responsibilities ef their calling. Hotel proprietors are granted large privileges but are expected by the public, in consequence, to fully realise their duties. They are not allowed the sole privilege of selling stimulants retail in order that they may make money as fast as possible, regardless of the way in which their hotels are conducted. The public does not grudge them the money they may happen to make, provided only they recognise what is duo to their customers and to general morality, but that they should recognise this as a sine qua non, and it ought to go hard with any publican who shows that he does not act up to this standard and has not instilled the proper principles into his staff. Now, we are quite willing to grant that those who dealt with the unhappy deceased on the morning of the 11th instant did not realise that ha was ill. The only person who seemed to have any suspicion that he was not inebriated was the barmaid, and it cannot he expected that she should have carried out her view to any practical result in the face of the opposite opinions given by several of the hotel staff. And in this connection wo are pleased that the word “ inhuman ” was cut out of the verdict of the jury, because, if Mr M. O. Sheppard and his two servants thought that the deceased was drunk, such an extreme term can hardly be applied to their conduct. It is well to call attention to this fact in the present excited state of public feeling. The public, while not looking with a lenient eye on the proceedings which culminated in the death of Bradbum, should at least bo just. But enough remains behind, when the persons implicated are absolved from the charge of inhumanity, to render the case against them very heavy. Let us imagine the deceased to havo been inebriated and not ill, and let us see what happened. Let na look upon him as having been drunk and incapable. Now it does not appear that Mr. M. C. Sheppard made the slightest enquiries as to with what amount of liquor Bradbum had been supplied, but, oven if he had, and had found that he had drank only two small glasses of brandy, still the man was in the White Hart bar drunk and incapable. It is very evident that the public do not wish to have anything to do with publicans who can look callously on such a case. A publican should feel it a disgrace that such an event should occur in his house, and he should, moreover, be moved by compassion for the drunkard. The 1

worst class of publicans look upon drunken men BM indludlds who can

easily Oe bled if they are properly shepherded, But the majority of landlords.

we trust, do not take this view. A man drunk and incapable is to them as obnoxious and pitiable a sight as he is to to any outsider. If he wishes to keep

his character he will not turn the man

on the public streets, or lay him on on© side, but immediately put tbe case in the hands of the police. This view appears, from his evidence, to have occurred to

Mr. M. 0. Sheppard, and we can only regret that ho did not take the better part. The being drunk and incapable is an offence recognisable by law, and the publican is the last man in

:he world who should overlook it.

He is more or less of a public officer, because bo is entrusted by the public with certain privileges and responsibilities of an onerous nature. His first

duty should be to impress his subordinates with the fact that drunkenness is a crime to which the visitors to his house.

are peculiarly liable, and that they should take every precaution against its occurrence. His second duty should be to determine that, if unfortunately a man is found in a state of inebriety in hia house, there should ho no endeavour to gloss over the matter, but that the proper authorities should be at once communicated with. The publican’s first duty is to the public, and not to the reputation of his own house. Besides, from a merely selfish point of. view, in the present state of affairs it is recognised that some persons will exceed in the matter of drink, and the surest way of a landlord, in the long run, bringing his honsa to evil repute is to attempt to hide the cases. The authorities are well aware of the evils connected with the liquor traffic, and they would think all the better of a publican who would, on every occasion when a drunken man was found on his promises, treat the event in the open and honourable manner we have suggested. Besides, publicans should be a wars that men who are drunk and Incapable, even if they are not otherwise ill, are In more or less of a critical state. The vitality in such men is reduced deplorably, and to turn a man out into the open, or even to cease to look after him, is highly reprehensible and dangerous. A publican may neglect scores of drunken men, and :hey may come round again; hut, if there is any internal disease in an inebriate, the publican may find himself with a corpse in hie honsa. 1 The sooner, then, the case is put into the hands of the police the better. It is true that the general public aro aa oblivions to this aspect of the question as the publicans themselves, but none the less should the latter be particularly open to the truth of this fact. And one word in conclusion. We do not allude to the landlord of the White Hart Hotel, but we wish to enunciate a general principle. The management of hotels should never be placed in hands of people who, by their years, have not : gained sufficient experience to be capable for the post, and when landlords devolve their duties on other people, those people should possess the proper qualifications. It is as unpleasant to see a hotel even temporarily in charge of an unqualified person, as to see a ship in charge of an apprentice.