THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3914, 16 September 1891, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

PublisJied by the courtesy of the Editor of Wairarapa Daily under the auspices of the New Zealand Alliance for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, Masterton Auxilixry.

When ratepayers demand the entire extinction of all places for the sale of liqxwrstheir prayer should be granted. — Charles Buxion, Brewer,

Mr Stead in the July number of the Review of Reviews renia iks that' 'a good thing may be learnt from Christiauia, in Norway, where taverns are only opened about 9 a.m. in order to prevent an influx of the workmen going oS to their respective labours ; and in Eongsvinger, Jonsberg, etc., the taverne are closed on fete days, when the towns are crowded. Alas! in England it is the sorry custom to apply for an extension of hours that the tavern tills may swallow as much | as possible of the hard-earned savings of tbe working man who, having been rendered sufficiently swinish, is finally disgorged from the vile smelling, flaring, overheated bar into the cold night air." The English "sorry custom" is one that obtains in Masterton. The local publicans are kicking against the 10 o'clock license granted by the Prohibitionist Committee. The " Moderate" committee at (be last quarterly meeting thought it politic in the meantime to refuse the extension to 11 or 12 o'clock, which extension our local publicans demand. Other trades and professions find late closing a grievance, and our Parliament has been trying to reduce the evil; but our publicans Itok upon being compelled to shut at the late hour ot 10 o'clock as a serious calamity. They wish a return to the old hour of 11 o'clock, and are prepared to pay an additional license fee of £lO. It is well for the citizens to take note of the fact that the 11 o'clock license is really a 12 o'clock license. The J publicans know very well if they get the 11 o'clock license they can go on selling up to midnight. They can simply snap their fingers at the police when taken to task for selling after 11 o'clook. The 10 o'clock license is then a real stroke of Prohibition, and the police can at present enforce the law to the minute. A local appeared in a recent issue of the Daily, which stated that the police were in future to carry out the licensing laws in their stem integrity. There is certainly rcom for great improvement in Masterton in view of the very marked recent increase of drunken disgracing our streets. We have no sympathy with the lazy outbursts of indignation in» dulged in by some people in pelting the police with abuso when the law is violated. The police are not judpes. They muse move when they have evidence, The citizens can do much to strengthen the hands ot the police in this matter. A small vigilance committee ot citizens would do good in this matter.

There is, as we have said, room in Masterton for improvement in carrying out the law. The citizens can render efficient aid in the following regions where the law is systematically defied. First as regards selling liquor to intoxicated men. Clause 146 of the present Act provides that the publican incurs a penalty up to £2O for first offence and £SO for second offence. Mr Beetham's judgment ns reported in yesterday's Daily furnishes a practical exposition of this clause. Seeond, as regards the selling of liquor to prohibited drunkards. It is well known no good result comes from the taking out of a prohibition order in many cases. The " prohibited " person in some strange way gets the drink in the district that the order covers. Now there is room for a stringent enforcement of a law thus violated. The citizens should know that it is not the drink seller alone that may be punished in such cases. Clause 189 of the Act declares that the person that gives, purchases, or procure* liquor on behalf of the prohibited drunkard is liable to a penalty of £5. A conviction under this clause of the Act would be a smart lesson to the debased wretches in our midst who seem to delight in compassing the complete ruin of the drink victim. It is surely the duty of the police to see that these prohibition orders are not dead letters. In the third place, clause 155 of the Act is worthy of practical consideration. The travelling public can very easily protect itself. Clause 155 provides that it is illegal for the publican not only to sell drink after 10 o'clock, but it is even unlawful for him to allow billiards or any other game to be played on the premises. We call the attention of the citizens to these sections of the present Act, The knowledge that the citizens are awake will act as a moral tonic on the lawbreakers.

The following tragic story was told by one of the Masterton preachers last Sabbath. A poor half-witted servant girl, dreading death from starvation, sought death by entering the bear pit in the Frankfort Zoological Gardens. The bear seized her at once, and as he began to tear the flesh from her face in strips she shrieked for help. The keepers arrived, saw what the bear was doing, and expostulated with it mildly by means of a long pole. As he look no notice of their expostulations they allowed him to go on with his hideous repast of living; human flesh until aftei half an hour of agony the poor girl expired. When the keepers were asked afterwards why they had not shot the bear and saved the girl, they replied that the bear was much too valuable an animal to be destroyed. The use the preacher made of this atrocity was to the effect that there were at work in society evil forces that were destioying many. He specified the feverish desire to make money without toil as given in reckless speculation and gambling. The gambling fever had even smitten churches, and money was raised for support of such institutions in Christian ways. The ruined gambling victims stood'before the churches, but in regions where the evil was participated in, the tongue of condemnation was paralysed, and like the murderous keepers at Frankfert, the ecclesiastical officials considered that "the bear was much too valuable an animal to be destroyed." There is another evil force in society that the preacher could have directed attention to. Our liquor traffic is considered by many " too valuable a bear to be destroyed." That it is a savage destructive force, ruining jthe bodies, minds, and souls of numbers, is quite' apparent. In the eyes of the Anti-Prohi«.itionists we cannot afford ." to shoot the bear " ; they consider it better that the victims should be sacrificed. In Frankfort the keepers are on trial for manslaughter. The Ipcal liquor traffic was recently tried and found guilty. The day is not far distant when the death sentence will be meted out to it. The mora) sense of the community will not on the next occasion be crushed by the money power.