THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1880

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3588, 26 June 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1880

The editor of our contemporary must bare a bad cold, rheumatic gout, a probable fall in shares, or some other evil influence hanging over him, or he could not hare forced such an absurd article on the public aa that ia this morning's issue. Indeed when we scanned it over, the thought flashed upon us that it was the work of some one in the Whau. Perhaps our morning's paper was specially printed for our edification, as we cannot understand the Thames Polico .News : aserting such a baseless leader :u i's coluu:.<s for

the extra instruction of the Thames populace. As irsual when the Advertiser is wrong it strives to put the blame on j anothor paper, and by shuffling statements and scurrilous abuse succeeds in currying favour with a certain class of readers. Indeed the multiplicity of its editorial scribblers is most conducive to its existence, as its columns can be kept free from nasty circumstances affecting its contributors—a very pleasant arrangement for all concerned. It as usual pursues a bull and gatepost policy, and runs away with the idea that because we deprecated the petition for the removal of Mr Kenrick as 8.M., we must necessarily approve of his action as Chairman of the Licensing Bench. This is about on a par with the arguments in general used by our contemporary, and must have been concocted during a fit of drowsy imbecility. But, after our contemporary charging us with changing side», we must retaliate. The petition, of which it makes so much* and deprecates in such a high-minded manner, was printed at the Advertiser office many weeks ago, and that virtuous newspaper, well knowing the document was in, circulation, carefully abstained from allowing one sentence of the said petition to appear in its columns for the guidance of the public. We succeeded, however, in making ourselves acquainted with its contents, and gave our readers a brief resume of the petition. It is clear that the Advertiser people were then biassed, perhaps intimidated, into withholding the purport of the document from the eyes of the public, and had We not succeeded in unearthing that scurrilous abortion, our contemporary would have remained quiet. The Commissioners, we are informed, arranged to close some of Mr Ebrenfried/s hotels, and asked him which he would rather hare closed, and that before the sitting of the Court. This is very much on a par with the action of the highwayman who sticks you up and tfemands " your money or your life." The Commissioners shut the hotels up, in some cases against the wishes of the residents of the neighborhood in which they were situated, and in no case did they take any evidence on the question. This arbitrary manner of acting is as unjustifiable as it is wicked and cruel, and we sincerely hope to see some reparation made to the parties suffering the loss, or a reversion of the decision of the Licensing Commissioners. The Licensing Bench is intended to carry out the Act as it is, but not to ruin men by the erratic and changeable stroke of the pen. ■'-»■'