Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 113, 15 May 1894 — For thc Coconut Club. [ARTICLE]

For thc Coconut Club.

New Zealand iu the last week of Marcb had an exciting pollingd»y ou the licer;sing question. The issues were—1. thing' ;>s they ai-e; ’2. fewer hotels;or3, no hote!s and no single-bottte licenses. With newly-€nfrauchised woman votiug eveiywhere the teetotal party had a great ddvantage, for txtrerue ladies almost to au individu.il believe in an<l love eompulsion. Among tbe privileges; thev grudge the selfi>h se\ are the option men have of entoring an hotel (where they are beyond femioiae surevillance) and the optiou of smoking tobacco. The hotel, the clnb aud the pipe have long been recognized and hated as rivil attractions. The wholo of man’s evening leisure, if ho ; happens to be married, should bo | spent in admiring, and praising, I and courting the blessing Heaven has bestowed upon him; or if ho . is siugle, he shonld be looking : up with rapturo to brigbt eyes and listening to pretty prattle, with a view to going through. at j the earliest momeul. that ceremouy ordained from above whieh makes oue tlesh of two persons — | untīl the shoelsDivorce Act pulls ‘ thera asmuler. Of such are tho , W. C. T. U. Tlie teetotal lady in New Zealaud, aftor shaking her umbreiia in the face of Bisbop Juiius, aud telling tho highest l dignitarv in the church tbatbei j is a bad man (for objecting toj j compulsion), has eome to be .called the “prohibition virago,” and she wants to close the hotels, in order to put au ond to the I “evils of intemperance.” Wo ! have no statistics at our finger’s end, but takiug tbe nin of experienee as a guUe—what eaeh persons notices in his own circle of acquaintances—the number of husbands who bring misery upon the honse by their interaperance is too sm.ill to justify the desper- } ate proposal to close every hotel i and stop everv raan’s whisky or beer. And. if we consider tuat there are cases—very rare. of cour.se —in whieh wives bring miseiy on the house bv driuking — cases where iiito\icauts are obtained witbont going to the pnblic-honse or sending to the grocer—it is ag iinst all reasou to suppose that the closing of the | liotels ean be expected, even bv women, to prove an etfective and j eompiele cnre to intemperance. * Tho woman voter as yet kuow? too little of legislation an l the effects or no effects, of iegislation to be aware that the passing of a 1 *w is one thing an<l the eam inp of it out another where tbere is a strong hostile opinion, and tberefore :t is possible sbe may sincerely believe that prohibition ean be managed by actof Pariiament: but the probibition she is aiming at is the prohibition of rivalry. New Zealand. whieh has given womeu the franchise. will be an interesting field of observation to the rest of the world. should practical 3cquainīance with the voting and working of statutes bave thera as blind as they hitberto have been, and as determineJ as ever to bring men under poliee authority, tben wo may expect to see prohibition ( going ignoroiaiously out of fashion. The elections that bave just 'oeea heU show tnat. thongh in some piaees there were m »jorities for prchib:tion—:neffective| majorities, by the way—on the| whole moderation is tbe policv{ most in favor, &nd the oftene* 1

«lectk>ns are heid. and tho more nearlv thev api>roacb the extremists in organiz.iti**n. the less ehanee will prohsbitioa have. TLe l*dy ” by elaiming the right to “boss man ;n tk>I tics ar.d daring bnsint" % I !.ours as wel. as m ti.t home. is i piaviog into the han ;s of tbe tw,• * nvais that »he is vainlv seeking • ! to pat down —the social gia>' ano the sootbing pipe. For tho prin- • eipal failing that ha> eome dowu to mankind from Ai im i> the desixe to plaek fru;t < i that forb;dden tree iu the m:<l't of t!;e gtrden; aud the cravir.g f.<r the prohībited refreshment woaU become as nnīversal in the w rid at large as it now is in everv goa! where smoking is >tringentlv provented.—.V. Z. Kx.