Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 277, 15 June 1860, Page 3

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Colonist.

c B Can you, by virtue of your editorial acumen, resolve me this question—On what principle (if any) do our licensing Magistrates graduate their scale of qualification?' ■ Is it the individual?. Is it the alleged accommodation which the embryo house proffers to the trablic ? Is it the aggrandisement of the public revenue ? Is it (far be it irom me to insinuate!) PeA?eind eivldu 1al 1te 1n tder3 on applications purporting to have some seven or eight rooms in his house of course open to publicuse. Let us portion off that home: a bar, a bar-parlor, a taproom, a kitchen; there remain three spare rooms. he forgets to tell yon, and you neglect to observe, that the said individual has a wife and, say, five children,, who must reasonably require sleeping room. # Now adjoining the domicile of this individual Stands a house previously licensed, offering all possible accommodation for man and beast, and held by a landlord of unexceptionable character and conduct. „ , . . ~ According to the spirit of the Act a license is to be granted for a house of " accommodation," to meet the requirements of the "traveller." How do a bar. and a taproom constitute a house of accommodation ? They may form the material ot a Tom-and-Jerry Shop, but not a lodging house for the wayfaring man, with the ordinary appliances of a public house. , It may beijsaid that by increasing the number of public houses you decrease the number of drunkards. It is a mistake; nay more, you not only do not check intoxication, but you offer encouragement to the evil disposed parties to hold out every Bpecies of immoral inducements to frequent their houses; you directly encourage gambling, night dances, prostitution in its most depraved form. You do this, depend upon it, in the abstract; for where a man embarks in a concern, and finds the legitimate trade does not pay, he will have recourse to all artificial means to create custom, little studying the morality of his system. Ye magisterial powers that be, take heed, lest by an extravagant desire to increase the public revenue (I put the most excusable interpretation on your animus) you foster a system which will undoubtedly sap the vitals and destroy the moral energies of your fellow-settlers. To the Editor of the Colonist.

Sir —Allow me to suggest that a subscription be opened—limited to " males between the ages of 18 and 60 " —to provide fitting testimonials (some kind of fanciful cap for each would be perhaps as appropriate as anything) for presentation to the two gentlemen whose prompt, energetic, and successful exertions at the so-called " town meeting " of April 7th, have laid the public under a deep and, in all probability, lasting obligation. jYours, etc., ONE WHO FEELS IT. Nelson, June 12. ___„