THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4082, 6 April 1892, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Mluhedhylhtmrtay of the Editor oj ' WamrvpaMy Times, under the ■ auspieuofthe .fTeto Zealand Miante ■■■for of the liqxior traffic, Mmterton Awilhry, When ratepayers demand the entire extiiiction of all places for the sale of . liqvors,theirpraijershouldiegrantei. • —Charles Bmton, Brewer. [Communications tor tins column must be addressed to " The Prohibitionist," caro of Editor of Wairahapa Dam ' Times,] No grist has corae to our. mill this week in the shape of slanderous attacks on tho Prohibition Eeform movement, The snbjeot, however, of the moral and financial condition of Victoria is one that is worthy of further notice. We need hardly say that in no sense is Victoria a Prohibition colony, The Melbourne Argm never disgraced itselfby writing statements i that would in any way justify the bari rel organ of the publicans making the ' inference that Prohibition had been 1 tried in Victoria and that it bad j failed, We repeat what we said last week, that Victoria is the most drinkridden colony in our Southern Seas; [ and the following facts conflrm our j statement; First,. the Licensing Laws are framed in the interest of the

publican, not of the public The highest tribunal in the British Empire has ruled that the publican has no rested interest; in his license—that at the end of the year when tho publican applies for a renewal of his license he occupies exactly the same position as a new applicant, The judgment in the case of Sharp verm Wakefield shows that the nature of the license excludes the idea of compensation for refusal. In Victoria, however, the false idea of the vested rights of the publican in his license ajler it hm expired is recognised. The Victorian Act provides for compensation to the publican, And here is brought to, light one cause of Victoria's financial distress. The publican, through bis trade, manufactures criminals,

paupers and lunatics. Theie depraved beings press as a burden on the coloDy. Then when the publican is called upon to stop his trade the country compensates him for what he has done I But further, the Victorian Law makes the prohibition of the existing liquor traffic in any district impossible. In 1885, there were nearly 5000 drink shops in full blast in Victoria, which represented a drink shop for each 209 of the population, Since then there hns been some legislation in the way of reducing the number of dram shops, but little practical good has resulted. Each Liceusmg Districts limited in its number of dtam shops in the following way; one public house for each 250 inhabitants up to the first 1000, and one for each full 500 beyond, ' The closing of a house here and there in districts in Victoria -baa consolidated the business in remains ing dram shops in the same district and made a mockery •of temperance reform. It is no matter of wonder then that in Victoria, where the people are compelled .to perpetuate the drink traffic—where licensed' bouses exist in such alarming numbers—where the interest of the public is subordinated to the interest ol the publican—where the material resources of the country have been wasted in drink to tlie oxtent of £6,000,000 a year—that

we should bear of: crime, suicide and beggary being rampant. It is, how-

ever, a nutter of wonder that any journalist should be so ignorant as to find in publican-ridden Victoria an example of the failure of prohibition,

"It is an ill bird that fouls its own nes'„" The nest of tho inhabitants of the Wairurapa has been badly "fouled" by an "ill bird." That " ill bird,'' we need hardly say, is the traffic carried on under the patronage of the Moderate party. The fruits of the traffic, as recorded in our local newspapers, are, as we said last week, murder, profligacy, and pauper* ism, The Eketabuna muider case, with its whiskey-soaked madness, i» still before the public. Men have been buried in our graveyards during the past few months, and the certificate of death in substance says " killed by drink." The £SOO spent by the local Charitable Aid Board last year was nearly all given to drink-made paupers. The able bodied blackguardism that intimidates our housewives into giving charity is another fruit of the publio house, Mr Burton Boys, J.P., from the Bench on Monday said that continual complaints of this kind of roflianism were reaching the police. The aim of the Prohibitionists is to destroy this" illbird " that" fouls " our nest, The opponents. of Prohibition take this " ill bird" under ; their . special protection. . .

The oilier month in Masterton when the Prohibitionists accepted a challenge to a publio debate a gang of whiskey-soaked 'ruffians under the leadenhjn of notable characters yelled down the Temperanoe speakers and defeated the object of the meeting. The following extract from the London Daily Chronicle of January 19th tells a similar story;-Cardinal Manning was more than once called upon to fight, so to speak, with wild beasts at Ephesus.' On one occasion the Cardinal went down to Cambridge along with Sir Wilfred Lawson and Canon Wilberforce to address an Alliance meeting. A strong combination of publicans and undergraduates, man' of the former armed with black bm ties, whose contents they gulped down with great, gusto, converted what sl]unlfl have been an orderly mec'ing into a veritable saturnalia of rowdyioui; It was interesting to watch tb'i firm, noble, nsootic countenance of the Cardinal as he surveyed ,the noisy,*halklninkeii wretches who stormed i 'he plaiform, smashed the furniture; and yelled ribald songs. He never flinched for one instant, and seemed a veritable embodiment of the Church militant, The organisers ef the meeting believed that the audience would listen to the Cardinal, but his Eminence would not speak after the insult offered to Sir Wilfred Lawson. Canon Wilberforce, who is, or was, a good type of the muscular Christian, looked as though he would like to engage in a few rounds with .some of the rowdies; but it was ulti» mately deoided not to proceed with a meeting which will long be reraeni" bered in the annals of Cambridge.