ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. THE MAGISTRATES AND THE PUBLICANS' LICENSES. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 493, 24 April 1850, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. THE MAGISTRATES AND THE PUBLICANS' LICENSES. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

Sir — In his 'Elementsof the Philosophyof the Human Mind' DugaldStewartrelatesthefollowinganecdote: A naval officer having been recently appointed to the government of Jamaica, happened to express some doubts to the celebrated Lord Mansfield of his competency to preside in the Court of Chancery. Lord Mansfield assured him that he would find the difficulty not so great as he apprehended. ' ' Trust," he said, "to your own good sense in forming your opinions; but beware of attempting to state the grounds of your judgments. The judgment will probably be right — the argument will infallibly be wrong." In reading the apology of the Bench on Tuesday the 16th instant, for increasing the number of publicans from eighteen to twenty-four, and thus saddling the community with the support of six new nurseries of intemperance and crime, it appeared to me that our worthy Magistrates greatly damaged their reputation by overlooking the philosophy of the learned Chief Justice, otherwise they would

never have aggravated a bad act by a still worse apology. TheMagistrates "are all honourable men," and as such are morally incapable of any dishonourable proceedings; but they are men, and "to err is human." When they decide upon their honour, we are bound to believe they are upright ; but when they favour us with their reasons, whatever we may think of their honesty, we are at liberty to question the soundness of their judgment. On what ground* do they justify this extraordinary proceeding ? Why must we have a number equal to one-third of bur present public-houses added to the list? It is' not from any increase of population in Wellington ; for the increase of population is in the country districts rattier than in the town : it is not from any increase or activity in trade ; for the Government grant has been discon* tinued, the Government works have been mostly stopped, the number of troops has been diminished, and the military expenditure consequently lessened; so that instead of improvement there is a universal complaint about the dulness of trade, and the scarcity of money. Neither is it for the benefit of the individuals that have obtained the licenses that this course has been adopted : it is simply that the public may secure the benefit of competition in the sale of intoxicating drinks. One of the most common effects of competition is to reduce the price of the article sold, and in this way to increase the consumption. The benefit of competition in this trade was well illustrated by the Irishman, when coming out of a spirit-shop, and holding on by the corner of the house, he bawled out to a boon companion, "Holla! Tom, I'mallasyouseemeforfour'pence!" Possibly the Magistrates contemplate the multiplication of such scenes here. All experience goes to show that the more houses that are opened for the sale of intoxicating drinks the more will intemperance be increased. There ir a peculiarity in this trade that is often overlooked. In almost every other business the supply is regulated by the demand ; but in this the demand^* regulated very much by the nature and extent Srthe supply. For example, let bread or meat be ever so plentiful and cheap, let the number of the bakers' or the butchers' shops be doubled to-morrow, 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 drinks; there is scarcely any conceivable limit at which the consumption will necessarily stop. If a family purchase a quantity of bread or meat, they require no more of these articles for a time proportionable to the quantitypurchased ; and the same quantity of these articles will, on an average, serve always the same length' of time ; but there is no given time that a dozen of wine or a gallon of spirits will last. The drinking of a bottle of wine or a pint of spirits to-day will not prevent, but rather induce, a repetition of the dose to-morrow. It is urged in defence of this competition principle that it will not increase the amount of drinking, because those who are determined to drink will find i out the houses at any distance ; and although there | were only one or two houses in 'the town in which liquors were sold, there would be as much drunkenness as if there were twenty. This might hold good of a few confirmed drunkards, but it would not hold' good of the entire community. If there were only one or two flour mills in the Settlement, and these able to grind sufficient flour for the whole community, there would be nearly as much flour used as if there were twenty, because the demand for flour is uniform and certain. It is not so with intoxicating drinks; for the more temptations to drink the more victims to intemperance. Every new house that is opened becomes a new centre of temptation and immorality. It draws around it, to a certain extent, a new circle of drinkers. New attractions must be held out : it must be opened with a suf per, 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 tosupport him, than to go any where else: and through the operation of these and similar onuses a new race of drinkers and drunkards are trained up, many of whom would otherwise have escaped. Opportunity often makes the drunkard as well as the thief. If it were certain that in this competition tbe worst and not the weakest would go to the wall, the arguments in its behalf would have some weight ; but this will not be the case. The successful in such a struggle will be those who have most capital, and who are least scrupulous in the means they employ to secure customers. In the production and sale of those articles where 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 is no matter to the public who these persons be ; but in the sale of intoxicating drinks it is not simply who shall secure the most of the existing trade, but who can also extend the trade, and increase the demand for intoxicating drinks by pandering in every possible way to a depraved taste, and -to the desire for stimulants ; -and in proportion as they succeed every other business is injured} and the community burdened with the support of paupers and criminals. There is only a certain amount of money or its equivalent for expenditure in the community, and every pound spent in drink is withdrawn from other professions. Our Magistrates are certainly tyroes in the science of political economy, if they think it necessary at this time of day to make experiments upon taverns in the way that they propose. If there is any point that experience has proved, and which the largest induction of facts has established, it is the intimate connexion between the cheapness of intoxicating drinks and the number of taverns on the one hand, and the amount of intemperance, poverty, immorality, and crime, on the other. If this evil must be tolerated, if the Magistrates have not power to extirpate the evil, let them employ the power they have in keeping the evil within as narrow bounds as possible : their failings here should " lean to virtue's side.' 1 But after opening the sluices of evil and deluging us with intemperance, they promise to watch the evil with great vigilance. Are we to infer that in I times past they renewed licenses to parties that "conducted their houses in a disorderly manner, by allowing drunkenness, harbouring bad characters, impeding the police in the detection of crime, and other irregularities ?" Their apology implies as much. Or do they flatter themselves that, in the grand competition about to take place, their "vigilant system of inspection" will prevent thm

things from being carried on to the utmost point that the letter of the law will allow, or the hope of escape will embolden the vendors of liquors to attempt? The publicans must certainly smile at their good-natured credulity. It is but a few weeks since the feelings of the community were shocked by the brutal murder of the poor lad Ellis. lam certainly informed that one of the parties implicated in that murder was trained up in a public house ; and nothing is more certain that when the history of the candidates for the jails, the convict settlements, and the gallows, are investigated, it is found that a large proportion of them are traced back to the "tap" and the "bat," — it is found that they received their moral training in the tavern. And yet schools must be multiplied for the training of such characters. I make no personal charge against the publicans ; it is the nature of the business, not the character of the persons, that is at fault. I believe them to possess, as a body, an average amount of moral principle. But the average moral principle in the community is not sufficient to resist the temptation to make money by every legal means, and hundreds will yield to this temptation when it is presented before them. Hence the necessity of those who are invested with the legal checks to this evil exercising that power to the utmost extent. Some are bold enough to insinuate that the official Magistrates are, actuated in this policy through a desire to augment the revenue by means of the license-fees, and the greater amount of duties that will arise from the increased consumption of wines and spirits. The home Government have oftener than once adopted this policy. But had old JSsop lived in these days, he would have entertained such financiers by reciting, with some improvements, the fable of the T>oy that killed the goose which laid the golden eggs ; and left them to draw the conclusion, that revenue raised at the expense of life and morals will prove a dead loss. 1 I am, Sir., Yours, See., An Observer. -Wellington, April 22, 1850. - j

Wb have great pleasure ih extracting from the Otago Neus the subjoined Statistics of Otago, shewing the satisfactory progress made by that settlement during the last twelve months. The second anniversary of the arrival of the first settlers was celebrated oh the 2nd April with the accustomed sports, which appear to have passed off very agreeably. The European population within the settlement of Otago, on the Ist of April, 1850', amounted to — Married Males 212 Do. Females 197 Proportion of Married Males over Females 15 Single Males 458 Do. Females .\ 315 Proportion of Single Males oTer • ■ Females 113 - -. - 1182 . Arrived per Lady Nugmt 38 Total 1220 Some of the married males have Maori wives, who are not reckoned in the above list of Married females. The following is a pretty correct synopsis of the different religious denominations, and is proof sufficient — if no other proof was wanting — of the farce of attempting to found settlements in favor of one particular sect. The overwhelming majority of persons belonging to the Church of Scotland, from which the Free Cherch party at home have so publicly and so successfully dissented, is an ad- j ditional proof that the select of the State Church here will probably soon have a powerful rival to contend with in their old friends, whose secession to a place of worship of their own, judging from the number, seems likely. Church of Scotland 423 Do. do. England 306 ' Free Church 302 ' Qther Dissenters (Independents, \ , Baptists, Lutherans. &c.) / - ' Methodists 15 Catholics 13 Jews 2 Professing to belong to no Sect 10 7182 The number of houses, stores, »nd public buildings, erected, or in course of erection, in .JDnnedin, Port .Chalmers, and. the Suburban _ And Rural Districts, are as follows :—: — - Stone 5 : Brick 5 -Weather-boarded 83 . . .- Poles or Logs 14 Grass and Poles 10 Clay,&c. ..; 85 ' ' 202 The estimated expense of these buildings is very difficult to obtain ; but from the rough data we have received, we place the amount at between £1 100 and £1200. Some of the weather boarded houses are lined with brick, and the additional comfort thus obtained would become of more frequent occurrence were the bricks sold, at a lower figure. We do not know whether-tbe clay is deficient in the necessary qualities," or it is the fault of firing, but the bricks produced are only fit for inside work, and £2 10s. per 1000, independent of cartage, is too much to pay for such a purpose. If good, hard, durable bricks could be made for about £1 10s. per 1000 we should soon see the shells of weather-boarded houses superseded by warm comfortable and respectlookiog brick dwellings.

Acres. Potatoes 92i Garden ground under cultvation . 49 Oats 271 Wheat 20| Grass 19J Barley JO* Total 219| Total number of acres fenced in 31 6§ The undermentioned amount of stock does not include Waikouati or any part of the district further north than the mouth of the harbour, or further south than Molineux Bay :—: — Cattle • 921 Sheep 3408 Pigs: 732 Goats 169 1 Horses 45 This gives an increase since the 31st March, 1849, of 546 head of cattle, 978 sheep, 600 pigs, 119 goats, and 10 horses.