"THE EFFECT OF PROHIBITION."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume xxii, Issue 6457, 29 December 1904, Page 2

"THE EFFECT OF PROHIBITION."

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Although not altogether agreeing with your correspondent •" Business Man " as to the retrogtade effects of (prohibition?) No Wcense on th» business of this town, I do not wish to trespass upon your space for the purpose of promoting a uselpss cor* respondence on this pontj but I would crave kind permission to further the suggestion with regard to the formation of a local State Control League. Now, we Ashburtonites have had a fair sample of the working of "No Lioenße," and I will admit that so far as the cleanliness, etc., of the town is concerned, it has worked wonders; but wa must not give too much consideration, as is generally done, to these minor point-*. We must look at the real question, " The removal of the Drink curse," and ask ourselves "Haa No uicunse succeeded in, or accomplished anything useful in this direction? "and we have only to look at the continuous flow of liquor pouring into the district, and to the number of sly grog convictions to find overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Now, it seeing to m« a pity that so much energy and money has been wasted to gain, so far as Ashburton is concerned,; such a useless object, the closing of a few " public," but the promotion of- scores of " private" bars, to say nothing of " preside clubs " and " tarpaulin musters," and, therefore, it is with the conscientious object of doing something practical to clean up the drink traffic, tha,t I advocate the in'roduotion of "State Control" at the risk of incurring the displeasure of some of my " prohibition "-*-T should s*y "No License "—friends. But faots are factg, and I am certain that any broadminded person, teetotal or otherwise, who has given this liquor question the slighest degree of sound consideration and study, will agree that the sale of liquor over the public bars of State conducted hotels, under rigid official supervision, would be preferable to the present stata of affairs under fJ'No License.?'

Now, I 'sincerely hope fcl>at some of our more progressive townsmen will come forward, form themselves into a committee, and place before a publics meeting as much information as possible on this question, so a3 to have a.league in full working order, and in a position to effect something practical at the next general election. I venture to suggest that, should such a league be formed and the " State Control System " fully explained to the public, it would meet with hearty public approval end support. lln ttonel«sk>r r , I should like to point out that, kt the !time ot the controversy over the notorious " Clause 9," many "No License" advocates contended that "prohibition " was not the party's objeot; but that they simply watted to sf;op the public sale oi M^uor. We'll, seeing that "No License" has not attained this objeot, nor done very much in the way of cleaning the drink traffic, is ie not time that we tried a system which would at .le^sfc accomplish the latter?. That system is "State Cour trol."—i" am, etc., F.H.C.