THE THIRST OF GORE.

NZ Truth, Issue 234, 18 December 1909, Page 4

THE THIRST OF GORE.

Surely the Prohibitionist praters must feel ashamed of themselves about tiia Thurston case, though perhaps after their little antic of repudiation;. Vover their agreement with" the Trade, ".Ithey will bo used to almost anything. Thurston was charged at Gore with keeping liquor for sale and actually selling it m a NoLicense district, aad the prosecution set out that he ordered supplies for fictitious persons and signed the receipts with fictitious Rames. Thurston had previously been similarly convicted and fined £50, and on this occasion was given the maximum of three months' board and residence at his Majesty ? s expense. Thurston and his kind are the direct ; product of prohUiition, and persons of his sovt will continue to exist so long as men have throats and there is an embargo placed on the sale of intoxicants.. The aspect of the case which ought to hit the prohibitionists hard is that sly-grog sellers are a natural result of the cutting off of 'bandy supplies of liquor. In addition to manufacturing criminals, the Prohibition system goes a long way towards making duty m the police not sought after, for the reason that " m catehiji" the sly-groggers the "Johns" have lo do more dirty work than m air the rest of their duties. The Gore police will now have to start right away to worry out the best way they can .who is goir.T to succeed Tharston m his business . *

Then consider the case- of .Frank Polf, who got three months' "jug" for being the proprietor of a sly gro^gt-ry. ae had four previous convictions against him— in fact, m the p» : t. new^aver readers got sick of hearing atout the numberless raids on -Port's house and his multifarious appearances before thebea'f, to say nothing of the appearances of his spouse, who has now been ordered t<j make herself scarce. This act of fitsiring the absence from the district pi slygroggers is a good one, and it should tend to make the sly-grog joint a toot paying business ; for when the slp-swaufc. seryer is merely fined he. enters into t4«j business again, and, by past cxjisri'-hcfc picks up a trick or two of the .'olirv dodging lurk. The Trade should use p.ll its influence to have thic sly-grogger dressed down harder than they are^-at present it is to o easy for him to obli'B voters for Is'o-lic&nsb with swank wht> n the sly-drinker's private supply runs out.