FEMALE PUBLICANS.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 791, 8 February 1871, Page 2

FEMALE PUBLICANS.

♦ (to the editor.) The approaching opening of the new Parliament is, I think, a fit time to cast a retrospective -glance at our doings in the past, and if such survey should show the desirability of amending any of our laws, be they social, political, or economical, then the press and the public ful6ll but a common duty by bringing those matters vividly before the minds of our representatives. - We, on the South-west Goldfields, have unfortunately a long register of grievances, such as Provincial Government, with its excessive taxation, bad roads, want of bridges, locked up land, and female publicans— l should have said " single women," as the Act has it ; however it is to that Act that the present lines are devoted, reserving to myself the discussion of the other subjects for some future occasion. In dealing with the above question, it is necessary to take higher ground, as it is not only a problem of L s. d. If it must be agreed that, although vending intoxicating drinks is followed by a numerous and even respectable portion of all communities, the said business could not for a moment be considered the acme, of a man's ambition, but is generally choosen from force of circumstances, or from an indifference to any higher aspiration. If, I say, such be the case, what position does then our " single I woman " occupy in the scale of society 1 I do not here speak of the woman who hires herself out to do the smiling beauty for so much a week, and is a mere , servant, subject to the usual control ; I am speaking of the woman " licensed to sell," and who is " Boss," and does, of course, as she likes, a privilege to which a good many of her .male customers fancy themselves, no doubt, most especially entitled. Putting the thing in the mildest form, imagine then, for argument sake, that every individual one of those ladies IS ftrtlier st3rQng-Tuin<lo<L, — ttn-iirthiififL-wi'tll so well revetted principles, that either of these attributes might prove sufficient protection for her sex. But how about her mind ? Will you find anyone bold enough to deny that a year or so of a life "on her own hook " necessarily polutes the mind of any girl however well-intentioned she may have set out in the business ? And if the purity of mind ceases to be the mainstay of a person, what becomes of that person in. case of reverses or even temptations? The thing needs hardly any long discussion. It's too palpable that the Act, of which Charleston has the full benefit, is a very dirty stain in our Provincial laws, and stands boldly out as a monument of Nelson greed and recklessness. If it is true that we cannot be made virtuous by Act of Parliament, it must be equally true that people should not be degraded by pernicious laws ; and it is high time that every one who loves a mother or sister, or respects a dear wife, should londly raise his voice and join in the effort to destroy that stepping-stone to shame and degradation. Observer. Charleston, Feb. 1, 1871.