THE LICENSING SYSTEM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 12, 15 April 1871, Page 16

THE LICENSING SYSTEM.

| From the Ibish Evangelist, Nov., 1870.] In the July number of the London « Quarterly Review" appeared an article under the above title, to which we had hoped sooner to have drawn the special attention of our readers. It gave us particular pleasure to meet with this satisfactory discussion of the question in the pages.of that influential journal. The Methodist churches are arousing themselves to grapple with the drink demon, and some of the leading spirits in connection with the British Conference are in the front battling with the enemy. have space but to indicate the gist an& scope of the article in question, and shall be glad if our remarks lead any who may not have already done ao to carefully read it. Several points of interest are touched upon ; among these the large national expenditure for that which is not. bread* and which satisfieth not—the report of the Committee'of Convocation of the province of Canterbury on " the prevalence of intemperance, the evils which result .therefrom, and the remedies which may be applied ;" and the various organisations that are at work to abate or abolish the ill-effects of the drink traffic. The statistics given are truly startling. They tell us that while the consumption of strong drink in the United Kingdom has of late years increased, that of cotton goods, for instance, has decreased. The illegitimate tracfe has prospered at the expense of the legitimate one. " £8 8s 7-H per head per annum for drink, and 4s 7|d for cotton," are the figures representing the relative values set upon these articles by the population in the year 1868, "assuming the population at thirty millions." In our September number we affirmed that the employment argument in favor of the drink titanic was fallacious, and this paper gives figures on the point. The Caledonian distillery in Edinburgh, it says, employs 150 men, but the consumers of the spirits manufactured are out of pocket " at least £1,500,000 annually, which sum would give employment to from 12,000 to 15,000 persons or more." The whole drink expenditure of the nation " would find work for at least 1,200,000 more people than are now in employ. What a relief this would be to our alleged surplus population." Poor rates and police rates are yearly probably some £7,000,000 above what 'they would be without the traffic, while more than 50,000,000 bushels of grain are lost to the country as food, and turned into

poison. With regard to the Convocation report, " printed under the editorial care of the Venerable Archdeacon Sandford, who ably fulfilled the duties of chairmanship " of committee, our reviewer remarks: " And what is the gist of the report brought in by these church dig nitavies? They found intemperance and its evils existing to 'a frightful extent.' * * * They found that * the multiplied and increased facilities for obtaining intoxicating liquor, provided by the law, are so many licensed temptations to the excess so frightfully prevalent.' . . . They impeached the present licensing system as full of anomalies. ' ...,..' No

evil, ' the committee say, ' more neatly affects our national life and character; none more injuriously counteracts the spiritual work of the church; and, therefore, no question more immediately demands the zeal of our clergy, the attention of our statesmen, the action of our Legislature, and the thoughtful aid of our philanthropists.' " " It rejoices us to know," says the reviewer, "that while the attention of so many members of the Established Church is absorbed by considerations of clerical attire, of ritualistic tithing of anise and cummin, not a few, both of clergy and laity, have their eyes intently fixed on the wolf of intemperance that is decimating the flock." We have said that the several associations that have sprung up to battle with the liquor traffic are referred to ; and we need scarcely say that special mention is made of the United Kingdom Alliance for the Suppression of the traffic in intoxicating liquors, "which not only exceeds all the rest in the thoroughness of its demand for reform of the licensing system, but has, by the boldness, comprehensiveness, persistency, and magnitude of its operations for the past seventeen years, awakened

and intensified a public opinion, without which the active existence of the others would have been altogether impossible." We are reminded, too,that "the National Association for the promotion of Social Science has always had the licesing system under its eye.'' Marked reference is made to the observations of the Rev. William Arthur at the Manchester Congress in 1856; and we cannot better conclude than by quoting a portion of bis ringing utterance*. " The most powerful,-widely extended, and the most prosperous of our institutions/' said Mr Arthur, "is the public house. We are discussing a question which affects the welfare of every class of the community, not only at home but abroad. I believe the English public bouse is the most celebrated institution throughout Europe. There is not a siogle sailor at Wapping, there is not even a Turk comes to England by any accident, there is not a traveller from Mexico or Brazil who visits our shores, but he takes back with him the evil fame of the English public-house. I have seen a good deal of the world, and I have seen nothing so bad in it. . . I feel it is wonderful to find that it is possible for a human being to doubt whether or not the .sale of these things is an exceptional rule. . . . For my part I

have no particular set of views on this subject; but I am ready to co-operate with those who hold the extremest views, or. with those who go for the most moderate measures. . . I look upon the condition of our country as one so humiliating in this point of view, that anything which stirs the public mind, anything which brings healthy intellect to bear upon it, such as is now at work in relation to it, must ultimately be a great blessmg. As to the matter of liberty, I feel that requires very delicate handling; but, after all, if two-thirds of the parish think they would be better without the public house, I don't think there is any violalation of liberty in leaving them in the situation to say to the other third, If, you will have the public house you must go out of the parish for it,"