TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4459, 1 July 1893, Page 2

TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

The Gothenburg LiceiMgrnHM | HOW THE LAW WAS OBTAINED. fIBHB And how was this most and must'beneficial revolution brougßnßß aliout ? Through tlio only uimnsjßSH wlu'cli such revolutions can ejjHß|H efft'cted-ihat is, through' operation of eduoajiouLWjn^^^BßH Pirst education. ' During the between 1835 and 1855 est' and vigorous temperance ganda was maintained .throughout \-s| Sweden. By its means people were ;3| enlightened as to the causes of their misery, as to the necessarily injurious t vSjn character of the drinks by which they '.■* *£ wera destroying themselves, and as to > the means by which the evils from ',* which they suffered might be put an *jm end to. But this temperance agilation did but lillln in I lie way of rcflncing'jßS the drink bill of Hie nation. duals were saved, and a higher cpJHHH oeptiou the drink troffio' was formed; confronted by ever-presenttemptation, the people showed themselves still " A £*M slaves.: Thiß moral suasion, however, -CjH was not altogether, wasted. It pre-, Bnj pared Hie way for an effective remedy. H It created that public opinion ■ which . SB was essential aliko to the enactment, fl| the maintenance, and the enforcement jH of wise and strong public law. fl| WHAT THE LAW WAS, fl| The law of 1855, passed in response SB to the C 7 of the people, supplied the <H means by which the plague was' ' S greatly mitigated, It was a simple J| law, One section of it dealt with the' JH dutillation and. the other with the sale of spirits. The old stills for domestic use were abolished and replaced by 'We distilleries on a larger a higher excise duty, special supervision, an to distill at certain The law for regulating mainly distinguished by visions tending to increase culty of procuring The wholesale spirit trade free, but'with regard to which was divided into small quantities oft the prerniJHHfflH public house traffic, it communes to decide not on ly"rjHßßH matter and within what lin>9HH|[ should be carried on, but whether it might take pb'Cß at within their jurisdiction. The bene- : 'jß lioial effect of this law became atonoe H apparent. MB DOW IDE LAW OPERATED IN RURAL |B DISTRICTS,' JB " It is easy to understand," Dr Wieselgren, '•tho tließe laws in country districts, were thus enabled not only to of their innumerable small likewise found themselves of powerful means for suppressijflHH large proportion of those shops which had such a baneful on the population, Nor can there stronger proof of the moral trunsfor/fIH mation which the Bwedish peasantr; hud undergone during the latter jH decenniatbn the manner in which JHj they made use of their newly-acquired JH power." For, after having had aflH "public-house in well-nigh every JHj cottage," the very first year after new Act had been passed ttio numbflH| of retail (grocers') licenses rural districts was four of public^^HHßHH^H[ 493, without of the latter sort for less than a j«IH which could only be. granted the provincial authorities; though tbe number of retail thus granted gradually ing the following years, the far wHH dangerous public-house licenses steadily on the decrease. years—that is to say, in the 1805-66—there existed in districts of Sweden 120 licenses of theJHflj former, but only 848 of the' latter description, besides 169 of the afore? «B said casual licenses, which the',?JH| communal authorities had no riglit-to- jHj dieposo of; and Mr Carnegie bears the HH following testimony ;—" The effect of flfl tbe law on the country population was immediate and most remarkableflH end as that designation applies tofHH seven-eighths of the whole popnlatioJHß of Sweden, a very great reform haflHH taken place in the drinking habits the Swedes." But the reform didjMH stop there. In 1876, as Dr WiesejßHß tells us, there were in existence ffIHHpH rural districts only 100 and 236 pnblichouses. or to about 10,000 people, that communes bad much up to the pOßftr L and enforced over huge afeSjT ofToSHHH where private stills andbrandy shH^HH had formerly swarmed, IB^Bflll