For the cause that lacks assistance, For tho wrong that n c resistance, For the future in the dista And the ood that we can

1 Prosecutions against publicans for breaches of the licensing laws have, it will have been observed from recent Southern telegrams, been instituted with unusual vigour throughout the colony. These have resulted from a circular issued by tho Go vernment instructing the police to see that the licensing laws are rigidly enforced. The Cabinet was stimulated to this courae by a deputation of Good Tcmplara at Welling ton, who urged that Sunday trading, although illegal, was practised with im punity by a large section of the trade. The Premier then stated that he would take steps to secure obedience to the law, and hence the circular. There cannot be two opinions about the propriety of the course which has been taken. The law should either be strictly enforced agaiDst all hotel keepers or Bhould be removed from the statute book. lis violation with impunity by a few is an injustice to the law-abiding section of the trade, who are thereby com pelled to follow the example of the law-breakers, or lose regular customers. There has been a laxity on the part of the police, but still more by the Bench in enforcing convictions. Evidence conclu sive enough to send men to the gallows, has been held insufficient to prove the sale of a glass of beer, and the consequence was an in equity in the administration of the law which at one time became a public scandal. So soon as a law is practically inoperative from perpetual violation, it should be removed from the statute book, otherwise the authority of law is brought into contempt, and the law-breaker is endowed with ad-1 vantages which the law-abiding citizen has been restrained by the legislature from

using. In the course of their crusade tho Wel lington police have unearthed another abuse alike unjust to the trade and demoralising to tbe people, and which should influence the Licensing Bill to be brought down by the Government. Three conductors of so-called "Working Men's Clubs" were convicted of sly grog selling and heavily fined. It ap peared from the evidence that at these places, which were unlicensed, admission to membership was supposed to be constituted by payment of a shilling. 