Public Houses.

Extract from THE COLONIST of the 9th instant,—
" Our attention has recently been directed to the subject of Public House Licenses from three different quarters ;— First, by a highly respectable landholder in the interior, who has assured us, from long experience of the disastrous effects of spirit-drinking upon the lower classes in this colony, and of the serious losses and annoyances it occasions to proprietors, that more than two thirds of the respectable settlers throughout the colony would most willingly join in any memorial or recommendation to the Government, entirely to prohibit the importation or manufacture of ardent spirts in this colony. As soon therefore as we have a Legislature possessing the confidence of the colony, " a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together" must be made, to accomplish an object of such mighty moment to the future welfare of the colony. At present, we conceive, the attempt would he premature. Our attention has also been directed within the last few days, to the enormities of the licensing system, by a respectable householder in Sydney, who has pointed out to its several instances in the town of Sydney, in which licensed houses are kept by persons notoriously living in a state of concubinage or adultery, whose houses are merely licensed brothels, the resort (especially on Sundays) of the very worst classes of the community, and the nurseries of every species of low dissipation and blackguardism, of drunkenness, of gambling, and crime. And a respectable correspondent, whose letter will be found in another column, has in like manner directed our attention for the third time, to the crying evils of a system which calls loudly for immediate and thorough revision. In fact, it is neither the Government nor the publicans who are to blame for the crying enormities of the colonial public house system. It is the magistracy and the Police who are to blame—the former, in granting licenses to persons who ought never to have been allowed such an indulgence—and the latter, in permitting such nuisances to exist as, we are credibly informed, abound in the shape of licensed public houses in this town. In New England, the northern section of the United States of America, licenses are never granted but to persons of approved respectability; and the consequence is, that their houses are uniformly well regulated, while they are themselves uniformly recognized as reputable and meritorious citizens. But when licenses are granted in the way in which it appears from the following paragraph of His Honor Judge Burton's letter to the Governor on the Colonial Jury Act, they seem to be dealt out in Sydney, what can we say,but that the Magistracy, in licensing, and the Police in conniving at the continuance of such abominations, are aiding and abetting in upholding a system of general demoralization" ?—
" In June, 1835. no less than 224 licenses were granted far public houses in the town of Sydney alone. All these persons are householders, and they most readily occur to those with whom the framing of the Jury Lists in practice commences. Few of them do not possess the pecuniary qualifications required by the Act, and many of them are highly respectable persons, but the proportion which these bear to the whole number,will be found, on reference to the list of Sydney publicans, to be but small. " The keepers of the low public houses in Sydney, which form the far greater number, are chiefly persons who have been transported to this colony, or are married to convicts—many of them are notorious drunkards, obscene persons, fighters, gamblers, receivers of stolen goods, receivers and harbourers of thieves, and or the most depraved of both sexes. They exist upon the vices of the lower orders ; and, inasmuch as there are no licensed pawnbrokers in Sydney, they are in fact the pawnbrokers—but not, as frequently occurs in other countries, upon occasion of some temporary pressure on the poor for some necessary of life, but for intoxicating liquor. "I cannot reconcile the circumstance of such persons obtaining recommendations for licenses with any other presumption, than that they resort to dishon at means for the purpose; since I cannot conceive that circumstances relating to them which are known to their neighbours, can, by possibility, be unknown to those who recommend them for licenses." "We sadly want a Municipal Government for this large and populous capital of—a convict colony ; in which the lower orders consist of such characters as abound in Sydney ; and we hope and trust it will he one of the first good works of our future Legislature, in whatever way that Legislature may be constituted, to give us one with all convenient speed. For surely it is not befitting for the Governor of such a colony as this to be peering into public houses, and regulating all the interior machinery of a Town Police. Let a Mayor and Town Council be appointed for the municipal government of this colonial metropolis, and the Colonial Executive will he relieved of a variety of very invidious duties and responsibilities on the one hand, while the public welfare will be much more effectually secured on the other."

If Doctor Lang, when he wishes to expose incontinency, would confine himself to acts of public indecorum, that is to say, of indecorum and indelicacy publicly committed, committed at noonday, he would do well. But to drag into public notice, and enter into the lascivious details of private men, committed in secret, and which therefore harm society in a very minor degree, is as destructive of public delicacy, as it is proof of the sinister views and ends of the writer. The impurity of our low public houses, in Sydney, is felt as much a grievance by the respectable portion of the Sydney publicans (of whom there is a great number) as it is by the moral and intelligent portion of the public. The long continued apathy of the Sydney magistrates, paid as well as unpaid, drives the respectable publicans already in the trade, out of it ; while at the same time, it invites the abandoned to enter it in greater numbers every year : So that to be a publican in the present ad ministration under the " first second and third," and their renowned "chief" is a sort of reproach which was not the case in former administration. A publican in Macquarie and Brisbane's days was rarely a bad character. We have always exposed open public in decorum, whether practised by a little magistrate, or a big one, by an unpaid, or a paid, by a last or a first. Dr. Lang is fain to puff his newspaper, as the "EXCLUSIVE" guardian of public morals. But the Doctor never attacks vice in high places. He is too prudent and politic to do that. He looks to his SALARY, and his PRINTING OFFICE, and his clerical ambition, and his college INTRIGUES ; and on a view of them, he finds with the young student Paley, "that he cannot afford to keep a conscience." At all events, where constables and publicans see in the conduct of their more immediate inspectors and controllers, an example of gross and open incontinency, it is no wonder that their own verandahs are lined with prostitutes ; whose private lodgings, close at hand, are carefully arranged by the publican who encourages their domiciliary visits. The state of Sydney in regard to public-houses was never so bad as it is now, it is as bad as PARIS in this respect. Yet we never hear of any one of the worst of the body being disturbed by those whose special duty it is to see to their due regulation ? Many of the low public-houses are MERE BROTHELS ; and the keepers have in their pay, each, a constable or two. These men do not merely wink at the abominations going on within as to obscenity and gambling, but they prevent the respectable constables, from "interfering with THEIR BEAT," and from spying out their venality. Yet our Sydney magistrates and their "chief," seem to know nothing about these things; Until Sydney have a Mayor and Corporation, we are of opinion, that the chief remedy for the present crying evils would be, the appointment of a proper person, with a liberal salary, to VISIT, at all hours of the day and night, in his discretion, the taverns and public houses of Sydney. He should, by law, be invested with power to enter every room in every public house. Such power would be great ; and therefore the person invested with it, ought to be a man of the first character and respectability, and his salary must of course be proportionably liberal. He should be a MAGISTRATE, and have authority to call on the constables to assist him, in case he were insulted, resisted, or attacked, in his visits to licensed houses....
We would not restrain the number of Publicans. We are enemies to monopoly in any and every shape. ...
The present system of granting licenses upon the certificates of UNKNOWN PERSONS, such certificates specifying that the party applying for a license is A FIT AND PROPER PERSON &c &c, is absurd. A few days since we heard an application to the Bench for leave to TRANSFER a license. The clerk in a monotonous tone of voice read the form IN THE USUAL MANNER, adding, that John— William—and Thomas—certified that the applicant was a FIT AND PROPER PERSON TO KEEP A PUBLIC-HOUSE." The application was acceded to, as OF COURSE, without even the question being asked who these parties were ? and we doubt whether either of the magistrates could have heard the names of the parties certifying. This is a mockery of office. Be certain at least who the parties ARE that recommend or you may as well grant a license to every person who can raise twenty-five pounds. Such conduct shows the SYSTEMS on which our notable first, second, and third, are acting, as conservators of the public morals. 'We invite all publicans, to support us, in the above remarks, by such means as may be in their power.'

 The Sydney Monitor 18 June 1836,