PUBLICATION' OF DRUNKARDS' NAMES.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 111, 3 May 1876, Page 2

PUBLICATION' OF DRUNKARDS' NAMES.

lue “ Coromandel Mail”, in approving of the decision of the Kesident Magistrate at Tort Chalmers, that a man charged witli drunkenness need not nivo Ids name, says : —“ The publishing of names for tins offence lias frequently led to a young man's utter ruin for* life. c have an instance under our own memory which occurred in Auckland some time ago. A young man of good family, ol gloat ability, and high commercial attainments, came to Aucklandfrom (Sydney lor the purpose of establishing a branch agency connected with a tire and marine insurance business. He was a man of exceedingly temperate habits, seldom partaking of beer and wine, and then only in very moderate quantities. He had never' been known to be under the influence of Stimulants, and the office that employed him had the (idlest confidence in his stiict integrity, sobriety, and steady habits. Now it so happened that this gentleman coining one night from the I rince ol Wales Theatre, contrary to his ordinary custom, but at the time bat iug a slight attack of bowel disorder, went into a house in a side street and drunk oil a glass of brandy. Whether the spirit had been drugged, or whether the stomach being out of order had the eitect ol depriving him of his senses, wo know not, but this young man was Imu at night picked out of a street channel in an insensible state. Smelling of spirit, and having the appearance of being intoxicated, he was then taken by the police to the lock-np, brought before a magistrate the next morning by whom lie was lined ten shillings. The fine was paid, and the offence, with the offender’s name, was published in one of the morning papers. Some kind friend of which there are so many in the world sent an underlined copy of the newspaper to the office at Sydney and the result was that the young man was dismissed from the service. From that hour he was utterly ruined. He became des, ponding. Fearing to return to Sydney, and unable to obtain employment in Auckland, lie went to Otago and there after a time he died in the hospital. The Port Chalmers magistrate has done a very kindly act by ruling that a man charged with drunkenness need not give his name. Drunkenness in itself is an offence against the law, but it is not a crime. To publish an inebriate’s name is more calculated to lead him to repeat the failing than to effect bus reformation. It tells upon Ids wife, his relatives, and on all to whom he is near and dear-