The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1886. THE LICENSING ELECTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2218, 12 February 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1886. THE LICENSING ELECTION.

We are not surprised that the "liberals" triumphed in tlio licensing election yesterday. Prior to the close of the poll we heard it whispered that if the " liberals" were supported the glass of beer which lias hitherto cost sixpence in Masterton, would, in the sweet by-and-by, be obtained for threepence. When we heard this we felt that the " conservatives" were nowhere. Jt .was hardly to be expected that they would win, because some of their candidates were men holding very extreme views, and in a.popular election men of extreme views invariably go to the wall. We respect extreme views when, arf in the present instance, they are the expression of conscientious convictions, but we cannot accept them. We are, however, more disposed to be conservative than liberal in the matter of increasing the number of licensed houses in this town. It is an article of faith with the liberals that an increase of licensed houses i? not necessarily! followed by an increased .conou/nption of alcoholic liquors, and, as .a natural i sequence, by an increase of drunken-: ness, Facts worth a thousand arguments: are against any snoh supposition. The following extract, taken .from Jhe North British Mail, in our opinion, absolutely demonstrates that an unrestricted i liquor trnffic leads to nationaldrjinken-' ness and degradation, fn a free community we may chafe at restrictions, but the practical wisdom of them is only too obvious. "Switzerland has had a pretty bitter experience of the effect of an unrestricted liquor traffic. In 1874 the new Federal Constitution took awny from the cantons their right

of local option, and from that time there has been a remarkaUe increase in public-housea, in the consumption of liquor, and in intemperance. Throughout the Confederation, the public-houses have become so numerous that there is now one for every thirty adult malos! The amount of brandy, wine, beer, and cider annually consumed is J 17,000,000 pints; and as the population is under three millions this gives 109 pints a year for every maD, woman, and child. Of brandy alone the consumption is 16 pints per head. And then we have over and above all this the coasumption of absinthe and kirohwasser. To such an extent has drinking increased that in the Canton de Berne there are whole villages where the children are fed with potato brandy instead of milk. It is calculated that ev.ry Swiss working man spends ten pounds a year upon drink, We can hardly be surprised, after these statements, when we are told that of the 600 suicides last year, nearly all were owing to drink, and that' of every hundred men rejected from military service, nearly a half are for the same cause. Switzerland has had ton years of something like free trade in liquor; and so disastrous have been the results that the Federal Chambers have taken action to check the evil, The bill which they lately passed, and which was confirmed, according to tho Constitution, by a general vole of the people, restores to the cantons their power to reduce the number of public-houses, and imposes a prohibitive tax on tho manufacture, sale, and importation of spiritous liquors. A t first the proposed legislation seemed unlikely to bo generally acceptable, for it was taking from the cantons the moneys raised by their taxation of the, traffic; but this was got over by an arrangement which divides among the cantons the amount that may be realised by the new taxation. As the vote was really between free trade in liquor, or a restricted traffic, it is interesting to mark the numbers. For restriction there were 15 cantons with 214,693 votes; for no restriction, 7 cantons with with 135,951 votes, The temperance party have secured a decided victory, but not quite along the whole line. Absinthe has been left out of the bill as a taxable article and since brandy and wine are now to be greatly increased in price the consumption of absinthe is certain to be speedily and largely laised, This exemption, it is said, was to conciliate the people of Neuchatel, where the manufacture of absinthe is tho staple industry. The operation of the new law will be watched with iutrest. Its supporters are confident that as similar legislation has reduced the consumption of" schmips" in Sweden from 54 litres to 8 per head, it will accomplish a like beneficial result in Switzerland.