The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 163, 10 July 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1872.

Some smart skirmishing which has of late been taking place' in Auckland between the publicans and tbo advocates of temperance has at last culminated in. a direct attack by the former upon the liberty of the press, or, at least, of such portion of it as does not espouse their side of the question. The manner in which this has been brought about is as follows : — Two societies exist in the province, one of which supports the principles of the Permissive Bill so far as relates to placiDg in the hands of a majority numberiog twothirds of the people in any district the power of negativing the issue of publicans' licenses; the other, -which is known as the Auckland Licensed Victuallers' Association, consists entirely of publicans, whose opinions are of course opposed to imposing any such restrictions upon the granting of licenses. Some three months ago, the former of these two societies presented a monster petition against any increase of licenses to the Justices at the annual licensing meeting, having first taken care to secure a< majority of their way of thinking on the Bench, the consequence being that several applications were refused. The Court then adjourned until early in June, but on this occasion the Victuallers had it all their own way, they having been successful in " packiDg the Bench," at least so say the Auckland papers. Some not very creditable scenes are reported to have occurred, but the ultimate result was that the prior decisions were rescinded, and the licenses, once refused, were granted. Hereupon there arose a great agitation,,

and the newspapers were crowded with articles and lettets on the subject, and as tho Herald, without altogether espousing tho cause of the temperance , men, ralliev inclined to their opinions, and allowed all that was to be said in their favor to appear in its columns, it, by so doing, cave dire offence to the members of the Victuallers' Association, who, by way of revenge, forwarded to the Southern Cross a letter which must be allowed by ail to he as insolent as it is ill-considered. The precious document deserves the widest publicity, and we therefore give it in full : — "To the Editor, &c. — Sir, — Such is the vindictive malice shown towards publicans by the chameleon of the Herald, that; we hope all puV>licnns of the province of Auckland will withdraw their advertisements aad patronage from that paper, and let the teetotallers nod permissive people support it. In fact, we think that, as these people have di?cla r ed themselves to be inimical to their fellow men, and would, if they could, deprive th^m from using tho gifts of God in moderation, we that think that grog or beer it pood for us should certainly awaken from our apathy on the subject, and should take such steps as at any rate would not let these fanatics have everything their own wny. For instance, we shall in future ascertain if the tradesmen with whom we deal are inimical to our comforts ; in other words, if they are permissive people or teetotallers, and if so we will not deal with diem. Let them support thpmselves ; and we call on all the working classes to (io the same. They will find themselves invariably to receive better treatment from open-hearted men than from close-fisted shams. — We are, &c." Sigued by the President, VicePresident, and members of the Committee of the Association. People of more moderate views than the infuriated publicans who were foolish enough to attach their names to such a production as the above might be tempted to think that if any " vindictive malice" were displayed in the matter by the journal that, hod rendered itself so obnoxious to the sellers of strong drink, it, was at least fully participated in by those who bad arrived at such a resolution as that which finds expression in the words : — ",We shall in future ascertain if the tradesmen with whom we deal are inimical to our comforts ; in other words, it' they are permissive people or teetotaller?, and if so wo will not deal with them." A more bouncible piece of braggadocio, and impotent di fhuce, perhaps, was never penned than this ultimatum of the Auckland Licensed Victualler' Association. The newspaper that honestly expresses an opinion on a subject in which they are interested is to be crushed by the withdrawal of their support, and an open attempt is to be made to ruin all tradesmen who, acting upon the dictates of their consciences, are in favor of pianos greater restriction upon the sale of intoxicating liquors. The Herald, we are glad to find. has proved quite able to take carrot itself, aod has made a manly Bland against this attempted coerciofi, while such of th* j tradesmen of Auckland aa happen to entertain different views to those of the publicans .will, we should think, rally round them all who are in favor of freedom speech and opiuion. The roost serious part of the afluir, however, appears to be. the " packing of the Bench," in which \h<* temperance advocates on the. first occusion, and the publicans or. the secono", appear to have been successful, thus showing that the issue of licenses is not regulated by any principle, but is entirely dependent upon the inclinations of those with whom the power lies, or upon the personal estimation in which the applicant is held by the majority of individuals who may bappen to be on the Bench. No slrouger argument could be adduced in favor of transferring the licensing power from the Justices to the people themselves, and we, cordially endorse the opinion expressed in the very sensible article of the Herald on this question, that from such a law no really respectable publican would have anythiag to fear.