PUBLICANS AND DRUNKS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3767, 1 June 1907, Page 2

PUBLICANS AND DRUNKS.

A Wellington publican was lined recently for selling liquor to an intoxicated person, and his license was endorsed. Commenting on this, Christchurch Truth says: —“Seeing the number of these cases, it occurs to us that Boniface is getting off rather too lightly for continued breaches of the law. . There can never be the shadow of an excuse for pouring more liquor into a man when he is already drunk, and apparently a good many vendors of tanglefoot do not worry much about having to pay £\o in the shape of a line when found out. The endorsement of the license only concerns him if he happens to be the owner of the property, and he is generally a lessee, this part of the penalty seldom troubles him very much. If a man is convicted more than once of selling liquor without a license he stands a good chance, under the existing law, of being gaoled, and it is about time the magistrate had power to ‘ send down ’ the publican whose greed for gain impels him to go on selling liquor as long as the customer can pour it down his throat. As a whole, the liquor trade is probably on a more satisfactory basis in New Zealand than it is in any other country in the world, but the frequency of cases like the one referred to shows that more reform is wanted.”