BALCLUTHA FIGURES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 162, 11 July 1899, Page 2

BALCLUTHA FIGURES.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—-In Wednesday's "Star" we had the revenue and expenditure of Balclutha for the five years under license and the five years under no license. Several persons have called my attention to those figures, pointing out various lessons. If the prohibition question had no higher aspect than that of finance, which it is well known that It has, the.figures given are encouraging. It appears that the revenue under license Was £4904 4/11, expenditure £5119 2/6, showing a debit balance of £154 17/7. Under no license the revenue was £3928 7/5, the expenditure being £3524 3/10, showing a credit balance of £404 3/7, which shows an improvement of £558. In the absence of fuller local information which doubtless will soon be to hand, it will be premature to draw too many deductions. It frequently happens, both personally and nationally, that big incomes mean proportionately larger outgoings, the net result not always j being the most advantageous. This is not jto be taken as ah argument in favour of | low wages or declining revenue, but against needless expenditure. | No doubt when the fuller information is to hand the result will be In its effects similar to the Balelutha Council's resolution on Mr George Thomson's letter.—l am, etc., R. FRENCH. July 7, 1899. (To the Editor.) Sir, —The report you published in to-night's "Star" of what the Mayor of Balelutha says concerning the effect of prohibition, will no doubt be read with great interest. So also should some telling criticisms, of the Mayor's address that were published in the "Clutha Leader" of July 4th by Mr D. Stewart, the borough solicitor. By j your kind permission I will reproduce j some of these criticisms relating to ' the borough finances as affected by | prohibition. It seemed a smart thing for the Mayor to say that the. same Council that censured him for his letter to Mr James Paul, brewer, should-also be afraid to authorise the signing of cheques for £80 .lest the bank should dishonour .them. The borough solicitor turns the tables on the Mayor by showing (1) that it was quite a common thing in the license period for the bank limit to be considerably exceeded; (2) that the limit at the meeting of the Council was not reached by £30; (3) that the accounts passed for payment amounted not to £80, but to £56 lis 6d. In support of his assertion that the borough of Balelutha has never been so.sound financially as at the present time, Mr Stewart gives the following figures, which, he says, are absolutely beyond question:—March Ist,, 1894, borough's overdraft, £808 ss; March Ist, 1894, loan on debentures, £1000; total debt on March 1, 1894, £1808 ss. March 31st, 1899, borough's overdraft, £471 12s 9d;March 31st, 1899, loan, less' sinking fund, £635; total debt March 31st, 1899, £ 1106 12s 9d. The borough's liabilities, therefore, have. been reduced by £701 12s 3d. As a further testimony to the effect of prohibition on the prosperity of the Clutha, let me quote a sentence from a brief leader in the same issue of the local paper. Referring to the fact that it, i.e., the paper, had completed its first 25 years of existence, it says: "The Clutha has made steady progress and at no past period of its history . has its prosperity been so marked or its prospects for the future so bright." When to these testimonies of the financial value of prohibition in the Clutha is added, the fact that it has reduced arrests for drunkenness from 179 in the license period to eight in the no license period and all other police offences from 30 to 50 per cent, it will.be seen that notwithstanding Mayor Thomson's deliverances Clutha is about as hard a nut to crack as anti-prohibitionists ever took between their teeth.—l am, etc., WM. JAS. WILLIAMS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Last night you favoured us with a lengthy report of the Mayor of Balelutha's speech. May I ask you to-night to give equal publicity to an extract from the letter of a deputy returning officer, which was published in the "Otago Daily Times," June 29th. "Would you kindly allow me " to have my say in the matter re male voters not turning out to vote, it being such a fine harvest day. I can give a complete refutation to his assertion. The day was. a splendid one for 'leading in' (Geordie is sometimes right), but there was not one male voter in this particular district who did not find time to record his vote. The young men arranged before the election to relieve each other while voting, so that no time was lost. I have been a resident in the Clutha County for a longer period than Mr T., and can certify to the great success of prohibition in the Clutha. This is the universal opinion of the backbone of the county—the settlers—though it may not he of a few interested in the sale of strong drink in Balelutha, which, after all, is only, as it were, a small carbuncle on the back of a happy and contented country. Before prohibition

I was carried in the county the settlers in the South Molyneux Riding had ample experience of the success of prohibition when they closed the three hotels in the riding."—l am, etc., FAIR PLAY.