THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. (From the Melbourne Argus.)

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 298, 9 April 1874, Page 2

THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. (From the Melbourne Argus.)

Oru Permissive Bill candidates should not be too confidentof the success of any attempts to put down drinking by cotnpnlsion, Massachusetts has been doing her best for the last twenty years to give effect to her prohibitory liquor law, and the result is now before us. Mr Martin* Griffin, one of the state Police Commission, who has made the most earnest aid conscientious efforts to enforce the law, writes to the Governor to say, that he finds, this to be utterly impossible, and that he must, therefore, resign his. connection with the board. So far from the Massachusetts prohibitory law contributing to the promotion of temperance, Mr Griffin maintains that it is highly detrimental to it, and that a good licensing law would be the best means of aeouning what i» desired. Under the present law, the sale of spirituous liquors is, he informs U 3, almost unrestrained, owing to4;ho readiness with which they can be concealed, and that the people, in consequence, abandon the use of malt liquors, and give thems Ive3 up te indulgence in these. But Mr Griffin's mode of accounting for the amount of drunkenness visible in the streets of Boston and in the other large towns is not allowed to pass unchallenged. General Bates, Chairman of the State Police Commission, writes vigorously in support of the Board, and declares his belief that their failure to put down the traffic in liquor is solely attributable to their not having power enough. Probably ; I u L . what power would dp sufficient? Let the Boston Advertiser, one of the most influential of the New England journals, answer th*t question :— " After nearly 20 jeara experience of a prohibitory law, seven or eight years ofyState Police, specially appointed to enforce it, there are at this time in Boston 3000 places where liquors are illegally sold. There are also 16 constables and what, it is asked, can these 16 men do with such an army of offenders, each one of whom has his own clientele ready to sustain him, and to set him up in business again if any accident bofall him ? The public and open violation of the law increases every year, and the constables cannot enforce it justly and impartially, if they would. If their force were increased tenfold they would still be unable to enforce it, for the difficulties are quite beyond their control." Nor wiuld-it be otherwise here, if anything of the kind were attempted. The ngencies appointed for the enforcement of such a- law would wholly fail in all our large towns or cities, and the law itself would be utterly inapplicable to the country districts. If the traffic in intoxicating drinks is to be restrained, it must be by laws which have some basis in reason, and in the sympathies of the people, not by one against whioh their natural instincts would lead them to rebel. As the prohibitory liquor law has failed in Massachusetts, so would a Permissive Bill fail in Victoria (or any other colony), and' 'for tha same reason. It would be thoroughly antagonistic to the deep-seated seutiment of personal rights.