THE LICENSING SYSTEM IN VICTORIA.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 772, 4 February 1871, Page 2

THE LICENSING SYSTEM IN VICTORIA.

The Wines, Beer, and Spirits Sale Statute Amendment Bill has made some progress in ttie Assembly, bus its passage is obstructed by the factious opposition of fanatical teetotallers, who prefer perpetualing all the evils of the present system to the adoption of what they consider to be a partial and incomplete remedy for them. Much may be hoped for from an improved constitution of the licensing bench ; while we entirely concur in the propriety of the recommendations made by Mr Yale, that a Government analyst should be appointed to test the purity of the liquor sold in public houses, ami that the payment of wages to workmen and laborers in a licensed house should be disallowed. Mr M'Kean has also given notice of an amendment which will have the effect of doing away with bills of s:ile over publicans' furniture and stock. This would lend to emancipate the trade from its thraldom to the brewers and to the wine and spirit meridian s; while it would alto have the effect of substituting, in very many instances, men ot' means and respectability for men of straw as landlords of publichouses. Under the present system. any person who is prepared to pay ;: small bonus in the shape of good-will, and a ice of two or three guinea** fur drawing up the bill of sales io the brewer, can obtain possession of a licensed, house. When installed, he is the bond-servaut of the brewer who rents or owns the premises, and sublets them to his tenant. The latter must sell the malt liquors—good, bad, or indifferent—with which he is supplied, and pay the price demanded by the holder of the bill of sale. Sometimes the person in whose favor this document is made out is an importer of wines, spirits, aud beer; and iu that case the publicauis rigorously interdicted from dealing with local brewers. In any case he is bound hand and foot to the person who supplies him with liquor, aud is prevented from going into the open market for the purpose of buying the best articles on the most favorable terms. Under such circumstances, he has every inducement to eke out his profits by lowering and adulterating the beverages he retails, and in proportion a*this pernicious practice prevails, there is a corresponding increase in the number of persons suffering from delirium tremens, afflicted by lunacy, and driven to suicide. For the raw spirit which is artificially flavored so as to resemble French cognac, West India rum, and Dutch or English gin, and the drugs which are employed to heighten the intoxicating effects of low class malt liquors, are literally maddening. They poison the body", and they destroy the brain. Nor will the evil be thoroughly eradicated until wc adopt the French method of testing the purity of all articles which admit of adulteration, by active official analysts, and of visiting adulterators with condign punishment. A publichouse or a shop with the shutters up, and a Government notice affixed to them to this effect, " Closed for six months as a punishment for selling adulterated articles," would be a moral lesson of the utmost iropressiveness. In the United States adulterators are visited with the " cat."— "Australasian."