Original Correspondence. To the Editor of the New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 300, 14 April 1849, Page 3

Original Correspondence. To the Editor of the New Zealander.

Sir,— On perusing your paper of Wednesday last my eye fell upon the list of applicants for publicans' licenses. I was surprised to find upon the old list the names of several parties who, it was said, had become so tired of a publican's life that they would not apply for a renewal of license ; but I was even more astonished when I beheld, under the head of " New Applicants," the names of a number of individuals whose habits and inclinations one would have supposed weie entirely opposite to those qualifications necessary to fit them for the manayemznt of a public house. Many of those person*,, to ail appearance, are now pursuing a successful business in their own legitimate calling, contributing by their indmtry to the general welfare and prosperity of our htt'e community; is it not a lamentable consideration, that such men bhould allow the prospect of t ,c indolent life of a publican to delude them into a business fraught with so much danger to the well being of their own families, and iucli misch'ef to society aiound them. But however easrer men may be to embark in a trade that must, to a dangerous extent, lock up their energies | as useful colonists, we may rely, I tOi-t with confident, upon the piudence of the magistrates who wid occupy the bench at the forthcoming meeting, that a whole. j some check will be placed upon the system of training licenses so iridisciuninately as hemo r ore. ludeed the bench should remember that the r decision on every application should be based, not entnely upon the character of the applicant, nor the recoimnencLition of a few householders, but upoH the ucce-sity that exists in every particular locality for a house of t.U(,h a kind as the ordinance allows. As society i, coiwiluied it is no t expected that they can be wholly dispensed with ; and as h«y are dtemed nece>-3»ry as " bouses of accommod»* b," it is well that they should be kept under the urveiliance of the authorities by virtue of their lioense ; but then a very fe w of them should serve a population like ours, numbering ou.y five thousand souls. The question then arises, does the requirements of this community justify the incrense of public houses ? Ajre we really m want of a drum shop fji every one hundred persons ? Unfortumteiy in Britain many are driven, by the want of comforts at home, to spend their leisure houn and hard-earned pittances in the taproom of a pothouse, or parlour of a tavern, where all is carefully arranged to attract and seduce — but then this very practice is daily lowering the social and moral estate of the people. In this favoured settlement the condition of the community, exept indeed of the most depraved, is happily the teverse. Almost every head of a family is possessed of his own home and domestic comforts, the fruits of industiy and laudable well-directed enterprise. Single men hare access to comfortable private boarding houses; and travellers from the interior, when they occasionally arrive, as well as visitors from the adjacent colonies, if they prefer it, may meet with accommodation at the three principal hotels. It thus 1 appeais that there is no reason ibis pretext for the number of applications put in ; nor could the bench be justified ia acceding to the dibproportionate and immoderate demand for licenses. It may be replied, however, that the evil will cure itself— that if there is not adequate support, some must fall. But is there not too much reason to fear that the demand will increase in proportion to the supply. Every licensed penon has hia circle of acquaintances, and they, in a desire for lub suiceas, although formeily unaccuttomed to frtquent such house*, will be anxious to give him a start, and by decrees becoiue, not merely occasional, but constant customets— negLciing their owu for bis fiieside. | In ad Htion to these objections to the increa eof public hou.-es, the oiairistrat s should consider the damage accruing to the v+bie of surrounding property by the insecuiity from fire that always exiats in the neighbourhood of taverns, especially in a town like Auckland. It behove? every householder to exercise great watchfulness over his premises to prevent accidents from this sou.cc; and the hobt of an inn muy be perhaps at times as vigilant in this respect as any other man, but he an have but little control over the reckless indifference of a drunken customer, who sits smoking his pipe, and imbibing his frequent glass, until he becomes so far insensible as to be careless of all danger. Indeed it would be well were the legislative council, at its earliest sitting, to amend the Publican's Licensing Ordinance, by making it a necessary qualification to ootain a license, that every house applied for should be erected of alone or brick, and detached at least twenty yaids on all sides from adjoining tenements. But there are stronger reasons than those I have urged, and higher motives than any I have alluded to, that should influence the oench iv the performance of their duties on TVsday nexr, As magistrates, not only should they hard respect to the due administration of the national and colonial law, but they should also see to the public observance of God's mor u l law. Piofessing to be a Christian community, and governed by Christian rulers, it must appeir strangely inconsistent in the eyes of tne half-taught Aborigines, when they observe the manner iv which we " keep holy the Sabbath day." It is true, that in passing along our streets, at certaio hours on the Suuday, a degree of solemnity, as compared with the bnstle of other days of the week, is apparent. Places of business are for the most part closed, and at the accustomed hours the bells may be heard tolling an invitation to attendance on public worship. But, then, ere this hour arrives, the law has opened the tavern doocs, and allowed the most injurious and unhallowed traffic to be conducted on the hallowed day— aud "many who, on the night before, had perhaps resolved to make one of the congregation in some place of worship, muy have been decoyed into some of those heart hardening dens, the mind unfitted f«r every thing sacred, and thus deprived over and over again of au oppor. unity ot hearing the Gospel sound. Our magistracy should, therefore, ponder well over their solemn responsibility in this respect, aud rather than augment, endeavour to diminish the number of these manifest sources ot evil and Sabbath drs-cration. The nations ot the Continent, which are now at theirwits end, reeling to and fro like a drunken man, had become lately so far ripened in iniquity as to observe the Lord's Day as one to be celebrated by theatrical performances and drunken revellings. While we mirk the frown of the Almighty resting upon those countries, let us guard our own new Colony irora becoming early tiamed iq suck dbbasiug practices, knowing that for all these things nations, as well as individuals, will be held accountable. It is with no desire to deprive tiny man of a meani of procuring an honest living that 1 write, I have merely ihrown together these idcis vvitn the hope that wnat I honestly consider to be an impending evil may be averted t and I truly believe, that were the magistrates to refuse to grant a single license, that the applicauu to a nun would be richer men and better memoers of society on thi» day five years tuan were their requests complied with to the full extent tl their desires on TuccUy n.xt,— -Y sir s &c, An Inhabitant