THE LICENSING SYSTEM! INVICTORIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 37, 13 February 1871, Page 2

THE LICENSING SYSTEM! INVICTORIA.

The Wines, Beer, and Spirits S'tle Statute Amendment Bill has made some progress in the Assembly, but iis passage is obstucted by ihe factious opposition of fanatical teetotallers, who prefer perpetuating all the evils or the present system to the adoption of what they consider to be a partial and incomplete remedy for them. Much may be hoped from an improved constitution of the licensing bench ; while we entirely concur in the propriety of the reconi'.npnclr.tious made by Mr. Vale, that a Government analyst should bo appointed lo test the purity of (he liquor sold in public house?, and that the payment of workmen and laborers in a licensed house should be disallowed. Mr. M'Kean has also given notice of an am'-niinent, wlm.h wiil have the effect of doing away with bills of sale over pu'-dicans' funmuro and stock. Tiiid would tend to emancipate the trade from its thraldom to the hrewers and wine and spirit merchants.; while it would aiso have the effect of substituting, in very raimy instances, men of rnenns and respectability for men of straw as landlords of public house?. Under the present system, any person who is prepared to pay a small bonus in the shape of good-will, and a fee of two or three guineas for drawing up the bill of sale to the brewer, can obtain possion of a licensed house. When installed, he is the bond-servant of the brewer "who rents or owns the premises, ami sublets them to his tenant. The latter must sell the malt liquors — good, bad, or indifferent — with which he is supplied, and pay the price demanded by the holder of the bill of sale. Sometimes the person in whose favor this document is made out is an importer of wines, spirits, aud beer ; and in that case the pubiicun ■■-— — . rigorously interdicted from dealing ■w'flJr local brewers. In any case he is bound hand and foot to the person who supplies him with liquor, and is preveufed from going into the open market for tiie purpose of buying the best articles on the most favorable terms. Under such circumstance?, he has every inducement to eke out his profits by lowering aud adulterating the beverages he retails, and in proportion as this pernicious practice prevails, there is a corresponding increase in Ihe number of persons suffering from delirium tremens, afflicted by lunacy, and driven to suicide. For the raw spirit which is artificially flavored so as- to resemble French. 'cognac, West India rum, and Dutch or English gin, and the dru«is which are employed to heighten the iutdxicating effects of low class malt liquors, are literally maddening. They poison the body, and they destroy the brain. Nor will the evil be thoroughly eradicated until we adopt the French method of testing the purity of all articles which admit of adulteration, by active official analysts, and of visiting adulterators with condign punishment. A publichouse or n shop with the shutters up, and a Government notice affixed to them to this effect, " Closed for sis months as a punishment for selling adulterated

ncticlea," wouhl be a nioitil lesson of the utmost .imprefsivcncsp. In the United States adulterators are visited with the " out." — Australasia??. Next mouth tlie first of Mr. Webb's steamers, the Nebraska, will reach New Zealand. Under tlie contract entered into by the Postmaster-General with Mr. Neilson, she will leave S:iu Francisco on the 16th of t he present. month, and as the contract time to Auckland is tsveoty-four days, she will be due there on the 12th Marr:h. An interesting race between her and the Wonga Won^a will taka place on the occasion, so that we shall have a i'aUT opportunity of judging of the comparative speed of the two lines of steamers. / For remainder of News see fourth page.