Eerirw Of Reviews. 119/OS. 



The Victorian Government Licensing BilL 



By John Vale. 



The Government Licensing Bill, which had been 

 long and anxiously looked for, and frequently fore- 

 shadowed, has at last made its appearance in 

 reality, and has been received by reformers with 

 mingled feelings, in which emotions of gladness 

 predominate. There is joy at many of the regulat- 

 ing provisions which it contains, e\en in the hearts 

 of those who know that, after all, seeking to regu- 

 late the liquor traffic is as hopeless as the task of 

 Sisvphus. There is greater Joy at the prospect of 

 power in the hands of the people to end the traffic 

 which none can satisfactorily mend. But sorrow 

 enters the heart at the prospect of the long, weary 

 waiting proposed before this righteous power may 

 begin to operate. In spite of natural disajjpoint- 

 ment, the attitude of the Temperance party towards 

 the Bill has been most conciliatory. The unanimous 

 resolution of the Alliance Conference, gratefully 

 recognising " the honest and statesmanlike effort 

 that the Government has made to deal with one of 

 the most difficult social problems of the time," must 

 have been as soothing oil to the Premier while he 

 was smarting from the many wounds which the 

 Worrall incident had left upon him. The charge 

 frequently levelled against Temperance reformers 

 that thev demand " all or nothing " never had anv 

 basis of fact ; but it will be a bold critic who invents 

 it again in Victoria after the party's magnanimity 

 towards the Premier and his Licensing Bill. 



It is easy to point out 



FAULTS OF OMISSION 



in the measure. It leaves undone many things 

 which ought to t)e done. There is no reduction pro- 

 posed in the inordinately long hours during which 

 liquor sellers are permitted to ply their mischievous 

 calling. The boon of shorter hours should be forced 

 upon ])ublican and wine sellers both for their own 

 good and for the benefit of the community. If 

 these people do not want a rest themselves, they 

 should in any case be compelled to give the public 

 a rest from their labours. Another omission is the 

 decree of divorce between the beer barrel and the 

 ballot box which would be pronounced by closing 

 liars on election days. Whom the devil of corrup- 

 tion hath joined it were good to " put asunder." The 

 proposal of the Bill" to merely prohibit the future 

 engagement of barmaids under twenty-one, except 

 the wives and daughters of licensees, seems like 

 jilaying with a grave problem. The nice things 

 said concerning the young women who follow the 



occupation of decoys for publican and brewer may 

 be true of many. And those who keep their charac- 

 ters unsullied amid the environments of the bar are 

 worthy of all the praise which we can give them. 

 Probably most of these would be found to be in 

 sympathy with reform. An ex-barmaid, now mar- 

 ried, wrote in the Ballarat Evening Echo : — " I have 

 two little girls, and I would sooner see them lying 

 in their coffins than earning their living as I did." 

 The extreme descent in the barmaid's career was de- 

 picted in the sworn evidence of Charles Hill, the 

 Melbourne police court missionary, before the Shops 

 Commission of 1884: — "As soon as a girl gets 

 rather faded in one house she goes to a house of a 

 lower grade, and down and down until no publican 

 will have her." He then traced the final stages 

 through the dens of iniquity, thence to the Chinese 

 quarters, then to the hospital, and then — to the 

 grave. There is no suggestion that this is the usual 

 career, but Parliament should endeavour to make 

 it an impossible one by erecting a barrier at the first 

 stage. I'he Alliance Conference resolved to seek to 

 amend the Bill by preventing the employment of 

 barmaids in the future, excepting those at present 

 engaged in the dangerous avocation. The limit of 

 riimpromise should not be extended further. 



Before dealing with the good points of the Bill, 

 I will point out some things proposed which 



OUGHT NOT TO BE DONE. 



The roadside license in mountainous districts is an 

 excrescence on the present law. It may be granted 

 by licensing courts at their discretion, and is 

 often granted in indiscretion. In practice "moun- 

 tainous" means hilly country, and sometimes 

 even country in the vicinity of hills. It is proposed 

 to reduce the interval between these, and other pub- 

 licans' licenses, from ten to live miles, and to make 

 them a\-ai!able, at ten-mile intervals, in country 

 which is not " rising." The Railway Commissioners 

 have secured the insertion of a provision to enable 

 ib.em to run bars on dining cars. The Alliance Con- 

 ferenre wisely determined to oppose both these dan- 

 gerous innovations. Reformers are willing to ad- 

 \ance a step-at-a-time, but not to go backward. 



1 now come to the more pleasing part of my sub- 

 ject — the good" points of the Bill. The First Divi- 

 sion provides 



A CLUB FOR BOGUS CLUBS, 

 and the truncheon of authoritv for clubs which are 



