A PENITENT PUBLICAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 30 July 1907, Page 4

A PENITENT PUBLICAN.

A few days ago w T e published a Sydney cablegram stating that a prominent'public man at Bathurst, who has an interest in three hotels, had denounced the trade. The man who has turned his back on the trade is Mr Richard Kenna, licensee and proprietor of the Grand Hotel, Bathurst. His statement, which appears to have been called forth by comments made at a meeting of the Eiquor Defence Association upon lack of interest in the movement shown by a few 7 publicans, is as follows : ‘ ‘ I have an interest in three hotel properties, and under these circumstances it is compulsory for me to handle the filthy lucre accruipg from the sale of detestable liquor. The public will be surprised to hear that I abhor ray hotel associations. Five years’ experience convinces me that in any phase the liquor which the union is attempting to defend is a curse and a scourge to humanity. I could wade through a category of deplorable scenes, of crime, starvation, and ruin, of which I have been an eye-witness through this cursed liquor traffic. I have made a deep study of the debasing effects. Were I in the position of such multi-millionaires a ares spread throughout the universe, or even possessed of the wealth of some of the local magnates, my great aim in life would be to endow 7 institutions, libraries, and compensate licensed victuallers who come under the reduction or no-license Acts. Some poet waites, ‘ As in body, so in mind, freaks of nature in both we find.’ This surely applies to ray case, when a licensed victualler proclaims prohibition broadcast, and is eager to to he interviewed by the Alliance of New 7 South Wales to further its no-license interests.”