UNLICENSED LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 310, 6 December 1873, Page 3

UNLICENSED LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, — Many New Zealand legislators have come from England and Australia, where the bailie between the police and the license I liquour traders, an I between the former and the unlicensed liquor tra 'er9, has .been bitterly, repeatedly, and, it appears, vainly fought. That tho payer of a liquor license should have to compete -nitli a person who sells liquour without a iieouse, is surely a gross injustice to the former. Ma.nv sly-grog sellers exist in every p.u-t of the colony.' The public havo a morbid sympathy for them. Tins sympathy is not genuine. It is cause Iby tlie injustice of the police leaving the sly dealer to sell with impunity for years, at the end of which he (the sly dealer) h dei-eived into a conviction. The police should use all their energies to prevent tho establishment of sly grog. They prefer to lop ofr the branches of crime — not to prevent it. Let crime cease to exist, and the police must, in a degree, also cease to exist ; but the remaining police, under a healthier stale of things, would be a deservedly respected class, whi.-h now they decidedly aro««£,for they wink at Mr. Sly Tap, but flae Mr. LLenso for the slightest accident. — I am, &c, Amateuk Detective.