THE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE IN AUCKLAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1154, 20 March 1884, Page 1

THE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE IN AUCKLAND.

Since the election of Licensing Committees for the Auckland City districts on the temperance ticket, a determined effort has been made to check Sunday trading at public-houses. The Auckland Herald, referring to Sunday, the 2nd inst,, says: —There was very little Sunday trading yesterday, less than on the previous Sunday. The publicans, warned by the experience of the first day, find the surveillance so strict that ‘ the game is not worth the candle.’ A goodly number of the publicans are honestly complying with the new state of things, and the police and the temperance party are getting valuable aid from them, which will lead to their less law-observing comrades being com pelled to stop selling. As one of them said, ‘I have ceased Sunday trading, and I will see that other men do so too.’ At one hotel, the police, from ‘ the loopholes of retreat,’ saw the thirsty souls in batches of twos, threes, and fours, being turned away empty-handed, and it was computed that fully 20Q were so refused. Another hotel turned away as many. At a third half-a-crown a pint was offered for bee-, and it is said that the landlord could have got rid of a cask at the figure. An amusing incident occurred at another hotel. A ‘ back-door man’had scarcely got his hand on the knocker, when the temperance ticket was upon him. It appeared, in explanation, that his wife was washerwoman for that hotel, and as he was very busy on Saturday, be was just going for the washing. The temperance man thought the explanation ‘ would not wash.’ The landlord of the hotel, who has been enjoying his Sunday rest since the new state of things came into force, was in bed at the time, but hearing the altercation below he got up out of bed, and looked out of the top storey window to see what was the matter. He at once took in the situation, and had a hearty laugh over it. The sailors of the ships in port feel the most aggrieved of any class, and they were roaming about yesterday fruitlessly for the usual supplies. Since the stringent enforcement of the Sunday trading prohibition clauses not a single arrest has been made on Sunday for drunkenness.