MEMORIAL.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 627, 17 April 1852, Page 3

MEMORIAL.

To the Worshipful the Justices of the Peace in Auckland, to meet on the 20th instant for the granting of Publicans' Licenses. The respectful Memorial of Health, Industry, Education, Morality, and lleligion, Humbly Sheweth, — That your Memorialists haveJbeen long known as the true iind tried friends of the community, and they have learned with the deepest regret that no fewer tlinn siiteen new applications have been made for publicans' licenses. They cannot but regard with the utmost alarm the veiy proposal that the honsps for the sale of intoxicating drinks in and around Auckland should be nearly doubled. Your Memorialists have heard murh of late of t 1 c dulnes3 of tiade, the want of employment, the scarcity of money, the decrease of the population by emigration, and a great deal of other depressing intelligence. They have also heard of much evil but very little good being caused by the public bouses. One of your Memorialists (Health) is assured by the Common Council that seven-eighths of the sudden deaths in this Settlement are caused by intemperance. Another of our number (Industry) is assured beyond doubt that she is taxed by intemperance in a sum equal to all that she pays for the general revenue. The other three Memoiialisls have more difficulty in procuring tangible data ; but they consider that, as their interests are more readily injured than those of the former two, they must at least suffer in an equal proportion. In these circumstances, instead of an mciease a leduction in the number of publicans' licenses appears to be the course that common s ense would recommend. Your Memorialists have long observed that the public in this Settlement are never slow to make known their felt grievances, but no desire has ever been expressed tbat more public houses were lequired. Much lias been said about the want of roads and other similar conveniences by those whom one of your Memorialists (Industry) represents, but not a murmur has been heard for want of more accommodation for di inking. The lieges are alarmed at any farther taxation even for such urgent and indispensable objects as public roads, but every new public house that may be opened will as cprtamly be an additional tax upon the community, though indneclly levied, as if imposed by the Govern- j ment or the Common Council. All the experience of your Memorialists goes to confirm their belief, that in proportion to the number of houses opened for the sale of intoxicating dunks will intemperance be mci eased. There is, as appears to your Memoiialists, a peculiarity m this fa'le that i-* often overlooked. In almost every other business the supply is regulaied by the demand ; but in this, the demand is regulated very much by the nature and extent of the supply. Let bread or roe^t be ever so plentiful or cheap ; let the number of bakers' or butchers' shops be doubled to-moirow, there is a point at which the consumption of these articles must cease, and beyond which the demand cannot go under any ordinary circumstances. But it is not so with intoxicating j drinks: there is scarcely any conceivable limit at which j the consumption will necessarily stop. If a family purchase a quantity of biead or meat, they require no moie of these articles for a time propo'rtionaßle to the quantity purchased ; and the same quantity of these articles will, on an average, serve always the same length of time ; but thpre is no given time that a dozen of wine or a gallon of spirits will lust. The drinking of a bottle of wine or a pint of spirits to-day will not prevent, but rather induce, a repetition of the same act to-moirow. Your Memorialists hear a great deal said about the enormous profits made by the publicans, and that it is unjust to allow such a small number to mono olize sach a lucrative business; that by throwing the trade to a greater extent open a wholesome competition would be induced, the piorlts would be more equally shared, and the public would bo bettor served. Your Rlemorjalistssay nothing, at present, about ihe monopolizing of trade and the ex pence at which tbat monopoly is secured, the^e bein* so many in this trade who, either themselves or some of their families, fall victims to intemperance. It is not all gold that glitteisin the publican's hand. But your Memorialists bear also another commonly expressed opinion, —that competition will not increase the amount of drinking, because those'who are determined to drink will find out the houses where it is soM what ever be the distance iiom one nnother,nnd that although there were only one or two houses in the town, in which liquors were 6old, they would be as much diunkenness as if there wore twenty. If theie were only one or two flour mills in the Settlement, and the*e able to grind flour sufficient for the whole community, there would be neatly as much flour used as if there were twenty mills at work; because the demand for flour is uniform and certain. It is not so, however, with intoxicating drinks; for the more temptations to drink the more victims will the^e be to intemperance. Every new house that is opened becomes a new centre of temptation ; it draws around it, to a certain extent, a new circle of drinkers. New attractions must be held out; the house must be opened with a supper, a ball, and a night's drinking : all the personal friends of a new tavern-keeper have stronger inducements to go to his house and help to support him than to p,o anywhere else; and through the operation of the-e and similar causes, a new race of drinkers and drunkards aie trained up, many of whom wonld otherwise have escaped. Oppoitunity often makes the drunkard, even more so than the thief. Your Memoria'i'-ts hope that your Worships will not listen to the suggestion o/ some well meaning, and on othersubjects,which they havestudied,very sensible men —but as appears your Memorialists, mistaken in their views on this question—and who soy, "Give licenses to all who apply and then they will ruin one another and be glad to give up the business." If it were certain that in this competition the woist and not the weakest would go to the wall, the arguments in behalf of the policy would have some v\ oiglit: but such would not be the case. The successful'in such a stiuggle would be those who have most capital and v%ho would be least scrupulous in the means they employ to secure customers In the production and sale of tho-je ai tides wheie the demand must be limited, competition is advantageous to the community, and those who provide the best and cheapest articles will secure the greatest share of the trade: it isno matter tothe public whothese paities be: hut in the sale of intoxicating 1 diiuks, it is not who shall secure the greatest share of the existing trade, but who can also extend the tiade, and increase the demand for intoxicating drinks, by pandering in every possible way to a depraved taste and by exciting the desire for stimulant liquors : and in proportion as they succeed every other business is injured, and the public ia burdened wiih the support oi paupers and criminals. '1 here is only a certain amount of money, or its equivalent, for expenditure in (he community, and so every pound spent in drink is withdrawn from other ro fessions. Your Memorialists have no ill-will against any of the applicants. 'Ihey make no personal charge against any of the present publicans. It is the nature of the business and not the character o^ the persons that they regard us at fault. Your Memorialists are ready to admit that the publicans possess, as a body, an average amount of moral principle, but expeiience shows that the aroiape moral principle in the community is not sufficient to resist the temptation of making money by every le»al mean?, and the m.ijoii y will yield to temp, lations of this kind when presented befoie them. Hence the necessity of those who are invested with the legal check to this evil exercising that power to the utmost extent. If this evil cannot be wholly eiadicated —if it must to some extent be tolerated, let the power confcired upon your Worshipful Body he employed in keeping the evil nithin as narrow limits as possible.

Your Memorialists have heard that your Worships are afraid to undertake the responsibility uiid incur the odium of refusing these new applications unless the public petition against them. It appears to your Memorialists as thpy have already said, that if the public wanted any moie public-houses, they would soon, through some of the usual channels of public opinion, let your Worships hear of the felt grievance, and that till the public do so, your Worships, as the sworn guardians of the public interest, in the discharge of your duty to God, the Queen, and the people, nro fully warranted to refuse granting all the new licenses for which application has been made. May it therefore please your Worshipful Bench to grant the yrayer of your Memorialists, and lefuseevery new application for a publican's licens", and restrict the old licenses to the narrowest limits that your powers will permit you to accomplish, and your Memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. Health, Industry, Education, Morality, Religion.