Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 36, 8 September 1904, Page 18

Notes

A • Snake-yarn ' Such an earnest and prominent Protestant missionary worker as Dr. R. N. Cust grew sick and Heartweary of the usual nvon-Catih'olic missionaries/ l hits at Rome ' and the gross exaggeration and, too often, of downright untruth that mark the reports of numibeirs of them. His work, ' Missionary < Methods 'is grave and authoritative impeachment of resorts which have contributed to place the' 1 missionary tale ' pretty, well on the same level as the ' srtiake yam.' The missionary tract lies specially open ijo tjhiis form of censure. One now before us has been circulated through the streets of Wellington. It coAtJains, as the personal experience of a missionary, a story that seems to us but a parapnrase of the incident in Dean Swift's careeir in which he carried out a full religions service to a congregation of one—his groom, whom he addressed in the seirmon as 'my dearly beloved Roger.' Ainottier ' tirue stjory ' tells 1 how God saved an ignorant Roman Catholic.' The 1 ignorant Roman Catiholic ' is described as a ' hferd ai:d ca title-drover ' who had ' lapsed ' from the practice of his religion, but was, nevertheless, ' blinded by Popish tradition.' He attended a Metihodist meeting, was knocked all of a heap by the usual platitudes, went to the priest to resolve his doubts, was advised by his reverence to drink plenty of whisiky and get his wife to sing him a (comic) song (this seemed to be quite customary counsel on such occasions), got comfortably drurtk, and. of course— found the Lord ! This 'an ikeyarn ' is set forth as ' a wonderful triumph of divine gjrace.' It would be much more accurately described as a triumph of tlhe art of which Ananias and Munchausen were two bright particular stars.

A Licensing Reform In the course of an able, thoughtful, and temperate article an the Licensing Bill at present before House, the ' Otago Daily Times ' says : 'It seems, to us that the Licensing Bill would be greatly improved by the insertion of a clause to provide for the abolition of the barmaid system. The licensed victuallers, as a class, are probably opposed to the imposition of a.ny check upon them in regard to their choice of servants, but, if they only knew it, the fact that barmaids are employed by tihem is the cause of a great deal of the opposition that is shown to the trade. It is simply indisputable tWat the presence of young women behind tha ftjaxs of hotels is a powerful incentive to drinking on the part of youths, who might otherwise be never temp.tdd to spend tiheir evenings in licensed premises. And from that point of view the system is straightway condemned. For anything which encourages the^ consumption of alcoholic liquor beyond the limits of reasonable refreshment is distinctly toad and should be stopped. Nor is the atmosphere of a public bar such as yon-ing women should be expected to breathe. However strictly and however respectably a house may be conducted, the bar is always to a certain extent a source of infection. The loose talk, the coarse innuendo, tha»t can never be wholly prevented in a place to

**hifch all sort® and conditions of persons have access, cantaot fail in time to blunt the senses and wither the finer feelings of the young women who are unable to shut A ,heir ears to it. For their own saices— for the sake of their womanhood— barmaids should be rescued froni a,n occupation which is too frequently destructive in them of much that is ordinarily prized in $heir sex> For the sake, also, of the future of scores and hundreds of^ young men who, but for the presence of barmaids in the hotels, would escape the risk of the domination of the drinking habit the system should be terminated by law.'

We do not hold with the Prohibitionist party (1) because we do not share their hard and fast rules o n the question of compensation ; (2) because we are not satisfied that prohibition is a real remedy for the admitted evils and abuses of the drink traffic; and (3) because of the intemperate and violent feeling displayed by the great body of prohibitionist speakers ajid writers towards the Catholic Church and body-a feeling which too often finds expression in the columns of their official olrgian. But we are free to confess that some of the best long-range weapons of that party are those which have been placed in their hands by that evil section of licensed victuallers who strain to rake in I*e shekels, m matter by what means— supplying drink to intoxicated persons, carrying on trade under illegal conditions, and luring young men to • sanctify the Lord's day ' r-y < shaking ' dice and swilling beer. From .personal knowlojdgo we are prepared to vouch for the truth of our local morning contemporary's statement that the employ mant of young women in bars is * the cause of a great deal of the opposition that is shown to the trade.' And this is a ground of opposition that tfte respectable licensed victualler has, alike with the scalawag in ijhe trade, long been supplying to the Prohibitionist party. The objection is intensified by the fact that, in, perhaps, the majority of cases, personal attractiveness is a chief—if not the chief— factor in determining the employment of an applicant for a position behind tfce bar. The fajqt that great numibers of those yo,ung women are in mind an|d heart and manners irreproachable is no reason for exposing them or others to the unwholesome atmosphere of a public bar. It only goes to show that mamy pfersonsi-those of the gentler sex included— rise, through the grace of God or early training, superior to their occupations and surroundings. It has long been in our tih-Qughts to remind licensed victuallers of two facts which they would da well to keep in view : (1) The Prohibition movement owes its rise and rapid growth and gathering influence to grave and acknowledged abuses, which, however, are no more inherent to the traffic in drink than to the trade in jack-Jcuives or nux vomiea. (2) Licensed victuallers are in a- fool's paradise if they fancy that this movement— mistaken though it may, be in its method and its aims— is to be arrested, or even seriously delayed, by stich resorts as lectures here and there or by passing attempts at legislative compromise.

Something more is needed. It found expression in the remark recently made to a member of our staff by a strong prohibitionist. A strict and greatly respected Dunedin hotel-keeper's soul had just flitted— we hope to the Better Land, and the news of his passing elicited the remark alluded to above :' If all publicans were like him there would be no Prohibition.' The lesson was not new, but there seems to be a disposition to shut eyes or ears against it. If licensed victuallers are even wiorlrily^wiise, they will welcome any legislation that will speedily eliminate the scalawag from the trade, and they will keep the law of the iand, and, above all, the moral law, in! cojnnection with the drink traffic. We should be sorry to see the methods of the American saloon fever acclimatised in New Zealand ; but in one respect, at least, it offers an example deserving of the flattery of imitation : female bartenders are unknown under the