The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1883. ILLICIT DISTILLATION.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1024, 20 April 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1883. ILLICIT DISTILLATION.

It is rmnonred, though we cannot say with what degree of accuracy, that illicit distillation is being carried on in several out of the way places in the southern part of the North Island. Our duties on imported spirits are high, and long ago it was laid down as a maxim by the best political economists,, that when duties are specially high they give rise to smuggling, and that when, on the other hand, they are low, it is not worth while to incur that risk. In England, since the free trade era, there has been scarcely any smuggling or illicit distillation, though the offence was exceedingly common in the early part of this century, when the tariff was of a very different character from that in force at present. In the Old World, both Spain and Russia have very high tariffs, and, in consequence, contraband goods are largely imported over the Pyrenees and the Caucasus. The business seenis to have actually commenced here, and under such circumstances as to give every prospect of this undesirable local industry flourishing. Our readers may recollect that about four months back a seizure of an unlicensed still was made at Porirno, and the offence being proved, two of the defendants were fined £IOO each, or, in default, sentenced to a term of imprisonment. They managed, however, through the blundering of the prosecution, and the smartness of their own lawyer, to get off on a technical point, and neither paid anything, nor were consigned to dnrance vile at all. It is hot by any means .desirable that such a miscarriage of justice should again occur. As things go at present there are all sorts of inducements to break the law in the matter of illicit distillation. The duties on spirits being high, the trade itself is a highly profitable one ; and as it is one which can be easily carried on in remote nooks in the sea coast or in lonely gullies in the bush, it is by no means easy: to track the offenders, and, when they are tracked, it is not at all certain that any serious result will follow, as the Porirna case *sfcwed. Thu tmOu Duinii mi profitwhirr ft is quite worth while to engage the best legal talent on behalf of the defence; and some loophole is almost sore to be found through which the culprits can escape. The testimony given in Court is almost always that of informers, and an informer’s evidence in a case where he gets part of the fine on conviction is looked upon with the gravest suspicion. If, on the other hand, police constables are employed, so many more of them are required that can be spared, that they are naturally inclined to neglect this in favour of more important duties. And besides the evil done by the law being set at nought and the revenue suffering, there is another almost equally great. From the rudeness of the manufacture

the distilled product is almost always frightfully , deleterious stuff, practically poison of a very dangerous character. We have a strong suspicion that ,a good deal of the liquor which causes drunkenness and delirium tremens in some of the hack public-houses, and which is so useful to the worst class of publicans in “ lambing down ” their foolish victims, is bad colonial spirit either pure or mixed with a small quantity of genuine brandy or whiskey. Experts in the trade who have knocked about much in the colonies are aware that it requires a good deal .of really high-class spirit to make a man very drunk, but a very small quantity of Porirua whiskey or any such compound will do the work before the buebman knows what he is about. The adulteration clause in the Licensing Act is one of the few thoroughly sound and really valuable regulations in the Statute, but unfortunately it is just the one of all others that is most seldom acted upon. The evidence of experts is not sufficiently made use of in Court in procuring a conviction, and thus the testimony of an ordinary police constable being unsupported, breaks down, merely through want of technical knowledge on his part. Sooner than the present unsatisfactory state of the law should continue, it would be be better to license distillation under stringent conditions,and charge only very low excise duty. This was done some years back in Victoria, in order to “protect native industry,” and a large distillery was established at Wnrrenheip, near Ballarat. But the stuff made was so abominably fiery and coarse, and did so much harm to the drinkers, that at last Warrenheip whiskey became a bye word and a reproach oven among the staunchest protectioniots, and it was not found worth while to continue the manufacture, notwithstanding the “ protection” given the article, as soon as it was known by its real name. But a far better remedy would be to reduce the duty on spirits to what it was formerly,

or .to what it ,is in the neighbouring Colonies. It is impossible to tell by any abstract reasoning what is, and what is not a sufficient duty to raise the necessary revenue, and yet give no encouragement to smuggling. But when experience, has pointed out what X’ates are sufficient for these purposes, that ought to serve as a guide. We are strongly inclined to think that these is really more unlawful distillation in New Zealand than in the other Colonics ; and if onr tariff is higher than theirs, as it certainly is in some cases we can easily guess where the evil lies, and rectify it.