THE EXTENSIVE IMPORTATION OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 22, 17 June 1867, Page 141

THE EXTENSIVE IMPORTATION OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS.

' TO THE EDITOR- OF THE TIMES. Sir, —Our little Province has already gained some notoriety by its capacity for importing and imbibing intoxicating liquors,, and;the "powers that be ” seem bent upon taxing its capabilities in this respect to the utmost by increasing the facilities for procuring them, and by ignoring the law.in regard to' ■supplying the notices with ardent spirits; Whether ' this policy is adopted to increase the revenue.l fauna not; it has, however, occasioned agreat increase cf drunkenness among the Maories, and offers an insuperable obstacle .to their moral and . social advancement. Those‘who' are responsible for the ma- ' nagement of native affairs in this Province would dssuredlg serve the interests of philanthropy and : vise government by promptly checking'the wide-

spread and growing evil,'being one ihaChas ever proved so fatal to send-barbarous tribes. But.set-ting-aside. the - demoralization of the. nalives y evoloed bg the free -use of ardent spirits, it becomes a matter for grave consideration—now that money is so scarce—whether we can well afford to lavish so much upon an article which, to say the least, aids not in the work of true colonization—the developing the resources of the country. It needs no shilled political economist to discover that the thousands ofpounds yearly sent out of the Province for this item of limiry alone is greatly impoverishing it. Then why multiply licensed houses for the sale of intoxicating liquors to an extent far exceeding the actual requirements of the scanty population, and foster a traffic which, by draining the Province of money, paralyses local industry and legitimate trade ?. Surely, Sir, the settlers of Hawke's Bay have higher and nobler aims than to become a besotted and . degenerate people ; and good meat would seem to demand more beneficial results than the social demoralization of its subjects, and the utter extinction of the native race.—-lam, tyc., Aegus.