14 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



efforts in the cause of temperance, by absolute prohibition in the 

 mining areas, were fruitful of much rioting. The attempted en- 

 forcement of sobriety, by cutting off all legitimate supplies of liquor, 

 was no doubt a mistake. Men engaged in an exhausting occupation, 

 working under strained conditions, and frequently in a vitiated 

 atmosphere, craved at times something more refreshing than a 

 stinted supply of the unwholesome water obtainable, and if they had 

 the means to pay for it, they resented the domination which con- 

 strained them. The drunkard was not saved from the results of his 

 excess, but the moderate man was penalised by having to pay four 

 or five times the value of his stimulant, and to realise that for his 

 slight indulgence he was ranking himself unwillingly with the law- 

 breakers. Like all legislation that runs to excess, the prohibition 

 worked its own cure by the evils it created. Notwithstanding the 

 severe penalties incurred, the inevitable burning of the suspected 

 premises and contents, and the repeated confiscations of all liquor 

 and plant discovered, the illegitimate profits were so enormous com- 

 pared with honest gams that all the ostensible efforts of the police 

 seemed to make but little impression on the business. This fact 

 was notorious, and the belief was very general that a reasonable 

 share of the large profits found their way into the pockets of the 

 police, thereby obscuring their vision of surrounding events. Such 

 opinions led to the action of the authorities being resisted ,and de- 

 rided, and tumult was of frequent occurrence in all directions. In 

 one case the police, acting upon the statement of a perjured informer, 

 illegally burned down a large store with its contents, and some ad- 

 joining tenements, for which the owner, able to prove his innocence 

 of " sly grog selling," claimed 1,900 for damages. So much excite- 

 ment was caused by this at Bendigo that Mr. Latrobe sent up his 

 Chief Commissioner to inquire into it. Mr. Wright, finding that 

 there was no defence, prided himself on compromising the claim 

 for 350. Unfortunately, the admission of error, coupled with the 

 higgling over the recompense, tended to inflame the existing feud 

 between the miners and the police to such an extent that it became 

 almost impossible to enforce the law. Eventually the Government 

 capitulated and adopted the common-sense practice of authorising 

 a limited number of licensed premises under stringent conditions of 



