INTEMPERANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 231, 29 September 1880, Page 4

INTEMPERANCE.

(Lcnlon Times, Jq-y 3rd.> „. The demand for legislative change in reference to the liquor traffic has become cow 80 general that we must make up our minds to whatever experiments may be needed to satisfy it.The matter will have to be carefullythought outvif ■* the one accepted formula of reconciling freedom Vand cpmp'ujsory sobriety; isjio be; preßefyed many degree intact. vJVe^mujrt |nbt^be Blartled by ifh~e'"Beeming-^c6ntrßdiotibn it presents. Temperance -legiiiaiion ik; fafit becoming' : 'a|fana"t|'Bi§m,^fa^aslpidE will ccc tffc dlific^ltylffFecSn|i^ja|^cpii T

(fadictions »nd performing iroposaibiHties of every kind, Tbe cool-headed observer will be inclined to ask what need a world of, temperance advocates can have for. special legislative, aid to assist it in keeping itself sober. Every class is reforming itself as far as it can. Drunkenness has long, ceased to be a prevailing vice in the upper sections of ; society. The middle classes have shaken themselves pretty well clear of it. The beitar part of the artisan class hns done the 'same. The vice, Lord Fife declares, r }in'gers,only in the' lowest graces of the community, where education has not yet penetrated. - In other words the : entire nation is ; becoming sober, though we must wait a few more years before the process will bo complete. There is more liquor consumed, it is true,\;tban; there was sgaae years Bince,,but this means chiefly that there is- a more wide diffusion, of money' which can be spent in liquor, not that each individual consumer is drinkipg so much the more. Ie is tbe temperate drinker with whom the fault rest?, acd to impose restrictions on the temperate drinker is scarcely in accordance with the. one admitted formula on which all reformers are in agreement. .There is room for grave doubt whether' the Legislature, with all the added light it may gain (from the experiments with which Lord Aberdare threatens up, will be successful in the attempt : it is to make. It may alrsr the licensing ' system as it pleases. If it only takes care that those classes which thrive upon the liquor traffic shall pay heavily for the vested rights they claim, there will be' small cause for grumbling; 1 But if it goes beyond this, if ib tries to prevent persons from indulging themselves the way they choose, something worse than, gambling will be the result. The law, whatever form it may take, is certain npt^to besubmittd to. It. will be broken of 'evaded in a thousand ways. The demand for liquor will create the supply. If the publichouse is - closed, the icliib will take its place, and will discharge its prohibited' functions. There is already plenty of complaint that this has been-done. Temperance societies, with their argus eyes to spy out, the ■, failings .ofJhe r%t. of the worlds have made the discovery long ago. "When , publich'ous'e drinking is over for the dky> priv* ate drinking goes on without interruption" /to I any-; hour. The publican, it ought to be remembered, is answerable for a part only of the general clrinkiiig habits of the country. The more he is interfered with, whether by law or by opinion, the. more, will business; accrue \io ! Bjbme other, caterer Kb the forbidden taste. Men, and women top, would) on ;iio, account be seen entering a public-house, have no scruple An ask" ingLtfor"liqudr?at a railway bar. ' If the cfoving'^existsV it will find Ihe means of satisfying itself. The Legislature may succeed in stopping one or two holes in .the sieve, :but it \jnll scarcely venture eVen to attempt to do Wora, and 'the only result will; be that the rest will be proportionately enlarged. Those who