THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4119, 25 May 1892, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

jPuMiVW by Me coitrfesy of ik Editor o} Wairarapa Daily Times, under the auspices of the New Zealand Alliance for the prohibition of the liqiwr traffic, Masterton Amitutij.' ' When rateptiytn demand tin entire tx r . Unction of all placet for the sale of : liqxiorsjheirprayershoiddbegranted, i — Gharletßuxton, Bracer. ' r [Communications tor this column must . be addressed to " TheProhibitibriiati" caro of Editor of Waiiukapa Dam Times.] ■"- •'- -■■■■ •'••' :

The fact that, the Masterton publicans are moving for an extension of the hours of"drink selling has startled agood many people who have hitherto held aloof from the proliibN tion reform. A very strong expreasipn ; of opinion has been given on this question by the platform and by. the pulpit. The petition to the Licensing. . Bench in which oitizens request the Bench to be true to their name aud "moderate" the drink curse by refusing the prayer of the publicans,' is being numerously .signed, The Rev. JohnDukea last Sabbath oven" ing spoke out fearlessly on this - question, Be called attention to the fact that in Auckland and, in every other place where the " aloderata " party had been returned by a small majority they had never insulted the ■' moral sense of the community by ' : licensing beyond 10 o'clock, -and in \ Auckland, with its population of iM 60,000, where traius and boats: . are arriving at all hours, there,., would have been far less audacity : in the publisans l asking an ■•' 11 o'clock license, than here,' In Masterton the demand of the publicans, after the last licensing election experiences, is simply audacious in the extreme, The travelling public plea will not stand. The last train ■.. reaches Masterton before eight o'clock; but oven though we had trains arriving at all hours of the night the publicans are bound to receive travellera, and Sergeant MoArdle and all, his force cannot find fault with them '.: for so doing.

The eleven o'clock lioense is cer- \ , tainly not wanted in the interest of the travelling public The inoreaseil hours of drink selling would' only mean that the drinking bar would become a more powerful engine ■ for making social misery, It is after ■ ten o'clock that the professional gambler seeks to pluck his victims, IL is after ten o'clock that the young men of the colony are introduced in the public house to a oriminal class A adorned witlrouffs and collars, and at,**? the banda'of these" gentry " receive lessons in gambling, obscenity, and genteel blackguardism in general, Mr Dukes raised another aspect of the question on Sunday night when he referred to the habitual soaker who blanched tlie cheeks of his down: trodden wife and sharpened by Btar< vation .the faces of his children by his vicious habits, Mr Dukes said a Licensing Bench—especially a Moderate one—should aim at the protection of the drink victims and his misernble dependants by -refusing to extend the hours of drink selling,

Thomas Carlyle, in his" Latter Day Pamphlets," Bpeaks in words of stern denunciation of the " Sluggard and Scoundrel Protection Societies," of our age. A Court of Justice should not be an institution of this kind, and yet unfortunately the supreme scoundrel now and again finds in the Court not the" accurate hanging" that he richly w deserves, but deliverance, In this t young colony it is astonishing to see bow professional thieves, perjurers, and vagrants escape the lash of 'the law and laugh m the face of outraged justice. In the Old Country the low public house is the training school of suoh oriminals, The" Thieveß Law* yor," who can no longer bleed the publicans by the slander and libel action trick, is paid by the profession whoso servant ho is, in proportion tohis success in defeating the ends of justice. Frequently these low drain shops in the Old Country are turned into Mc:k Courts of Justice, and the " Thieves Lawyer," in order to save ono of tho fraternity, trom the sword of Justice, drills his witnesses in a particular line of hard lying, Now and again, when the jury is unusually sleepy, and the Judge stupid, this legal Aunanias succeeds and the criminal escapeß,

The clear-eyed Judge, howover, is often able to expose this villany, and iu such cases Ihe Court is not . a" Scoundrel Protection"'lnstitution, f Mr Justice Grantham is a man who .■ can sep into the soul of things, flip action in' preßiding''at'iho Durham Winter Assizes on the 15th' March reveals the man, ■&. miner was accused of manslaughter. When drunk he had struck a fellow man a blojy that resulted in death. The jury found him guilty. Before tl|6 ilndge sentence he (]i(j something that pboiied the piej)[« ness of his vision. He (if; dered Mowbray, (ho publican, |o take his place in the dock beside tho prisoner, The publican having done

SO the Judge said ho would have felt more satisfied if the jury, instead of finding the prisoner guilty, bad found Mowbray guilty of causing the death of the deceased, No one who had heard the evidence could doubt for ft moment that the (ktli of the man was caused by Mowbray, for he had sorved the prisoner with drink when he.was 'drunk already. 1 It had no doubt beep hip practice, and he was afraid the. practice of other publlcaha . in that 'country,' to'servo, 'men habitually. when they were drunk, and' it was for that reason' he had requested the Grand Jury to.'wait, ia . order that they might hear what, he was going to say; There was no doubt ihat half' the crime ip thai country was cause'd by-drink, 'and tho oause of the ''crime' Was 'tlie publicans who gavo. the drink. He had uo power to try Mowbray, but ho desired to show his feeling in the case, and not only upon his con unit, but the col duct of all tpofe who acted as

he did, Judge Grantham's remarks, without doubt, express tho moral sentiments of every right thinking man, | and wo aro suro ho is able not only to read the " Thieves Lawyer" like a book, but to see that scoundrels aro punished, not protected, by our Courts t£ of Law. ,?,=. - ---