The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1883. OUR LIQUOR LAWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 42, 15 January 1883, Page 2

The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1883. OUR LIQUOR LAWS.

It is a popular mistake to imagine that the more rigid is the legislation regulating the -liquor traffic, the more sober must consequently be the community controlled by it. We recently made some reference to the incongruities apparent m the existing licensing laws, and the excessive strictures and oppressive * rigidity of their" provisions. We maintain that thus, so far from the effect being diminished drunkenness, the very reverse is brought about, and both the publicans and the: public — at least a large proportion of them*— set them* selves to circumvent, if possible, and evade the harsh and unreasonable stipulations that have foundjtheir way into the New Zealand Statute Book. In other countries an attempt has been made to render communities compulsorily sober by Act of Parliament, but m every cas6 the result has been fruitless, so far as the desired consummation is concerned. For instance : The liquor laws m Nor* way arb somewhat restrictive, and sometimes give trouble to travellers who are not prepared for them. The license to sell wine And beer is distinct from the license to sell spirits. All the hotels have the former, but very few of them have the latter even m the largest towns.- The consequence is that the traveller has no m procuring beer or wine at any time, but if he Bhould ask for cognac, he must wait till it is procured for him from a house or shop which has the spirit license, No spirit is sold anywhere, nob even m the licensed houses, between five o'clock on Saturday night and eight o'clock on Monday morning. This system leads to a great deal of dodging and trickery. Kuowiog" the difficulty of procuring spirits at hotels, the traveller supplies himself at the larger towns, and carries brandy or whisky with him m his valise. Should he unfortunately run short he will have little difficulty m getting a bottle of cognac or Irish whisky from the landlord, and will find it entered m his bill as " old sherry." The London Times thus comments upon ♦his system : " This is how overstrict laws defeat their object. They do not prevent drinking, and m the case of Norway they hare not put down drunkenness, while they ■ tempt honest men to risk their credit m devices which can hardly fail to have a demoralising effects" Similar undesirable results are being achieved m New Zealand, and to an equally palpable extent. We again express a hope that next' session will see more equable legislation substituted for the arbitrary, and to a great extent practically unworkable measure, known as " The Licensing Act, 1881," which now furnishes such universal grounds of complaint. It is so cumbrous that almost necessarily its stipulations are rarely intelligible and frequently irreconcilable even to the judicial mind, and that ib has been ineffectual from a social point of view, with a tendency to demoralize, must be apparent to every unprejudiced person. The day will come when historians will wonder (1) Wnat manner of men they were who comprised the New Zealand Parliament of A.P., 1881, which sane* tioned the iniquitous measure referred to ; and (2) How forebearing and longsuffering must have been the people who patiently submitted to such vexatious, oppressive, and impracticable legislation.