The Westport Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1031, 20 December 1872, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

The advocates of moderate temperance or the rabid supporters of the Permissive Bill, sought to bo foisted among New Zealand Statutes, will bardly lake beait of grace from the operation of tbo Nelsou Licensing Ordinance. Framed ostensibly to better regulate the sale of liquor and enforco duo provision boing made by licensees for the accommodation of customers, it is already in danger of becomiug inorerativo and worse thaa useless by reason of the impecuniosity, the

chronic hardupness, of the Provincial exchequer. Our Provincial Government resembles nothing so much as an antiquated orrery, or lneohaaical arrangement of mimic stars, wherein some constellations are missing and others are most woefully inisp'aced. It is a system of salaries in fact; the Superintendent being the radiant centre around which salaried officials, a very milky way of twinkling luminaries, radiate in eccentric and erratic fashion. The test of the efficiency of any department is, too evidently, its power to create revenue, to contribute towards keeping the cranky machinery in motion and stave off, for yet a brief season, the impending collapse of the show. Hence howsoever well devised may be the ordinances framed by the Provincial Council, for the better regulation of public affairs, they must of necessity in financial matters be liberally rather than literally interpreted. Heretofore the Licensing Ordinance has been, like our mining rules, subject to discretionary interpretation, and it has been notorious that licences for so called "hotels" have been obtainable by almost any one making application, of howsoever doubtful antecedents, or occupying the merest apology for hotel premises. The why and wherefore has been •' plain ns way to parish church ;" the Provincial revenues needed constant replenishment, and prof'erred licence fees were willingly taken howsoever much public honor and public morality were jeopardised. Nor will better things prevail now, even though a new ordinance has been specially adopted to meet glaring evils. Rather than the revenue should suffer, the baneful iuiluenceof too many drink houses will be still apparent; and licenses will be as freely granted to all comers, and for every clas3 of premises as before, except the public themselves bestir in the matter. Hotels, properly so-called, are in themselves a necessity, a convenience, nay, a'most a blessing, to a great proportion of our colonial popidation, and hence it is the more important to tho well being of society, that they should be properly conducted, and a strong deterrent influence brought to bear against an excess of licensees embarking in a trade that becomes a fostering evil in proportion as tho supply exceeds legitimate demands. Take Westport and its environs for instance. Can any one reasonablj argue that, within a radius of barely three miles, there exists a necessity for twenty or more licensed houses, or that the majority of tho occupiers thereof might not, with profit to themselves, and credit to the community, fulfil some more honorable employment than that of mere tapsters, waiting and watching day by day for unwary customers 1 Half the number of hotels, and those alono of the better sort, would be ample for all present or probable requirements. The provincial governing powers will do nothing to lessen the evil, either here or in any other portion of the Province. Tho subordinates in office have one standing order —Get revenue honestly if you can, but get it 1 The remedy rests in the action of the public themselves, more especially the trading community. Let a stop be put to the credit system upon which the lower grade of " hotels" exist, and the keepers thereof will perforce close their doors, and haply betake themselves to more industrious callings In contradistinction to the loose licensing system prevailing in Nelson Province, an example might be taken from tho Dunedin system now in force, were the licenses granted by free agents. Eeferring thereto the ' Witness' says : —" The members of the Licensing Bench, adjudicating on the numerous applications for licenses made to them, deserve the thanks of the community for the firmness and discrimination they displayed. Thanks to them, the city is, for a time at least, freed from the baneful influence of a number of licensed dens of wickeduess. Such places as one or two of tho " hotels " that were refused licenses are festering sores in a town, and ought to be put down with a strong hand. It is, moreover, at once an incentive to a man to keep his licensed house properly, and an indication that he is doing so, when licenses are granted only under certain rigorous conditions as to accommodation and respectability. A good deal has been said of late debarring a certain horse and a certain jockey from ever running or riding again on the various race-eourse3 in New Zealand, because of unsatisfactory proceedings connected with each. It is surely not too much to expect that the public honor and welfare should be guarded as jealously as tho honor and welfare of the turf."