THE NO-LIQUOR NO- LICENSE QUESTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 184, 3 August 1904, Page 10

THE NO-LIQUOR NO- LICENSE QUESTION.

(.To the Editor.)

Sir,—Your correspondent, "W. Barraclough/' in his reply to my letter anent ] tme above subject expresses the hope; that clause 9 •will become law, and that, in consequence, the manufacture, sale. or importation of alcohol will thereby : b» prohibited. I am free to admit thai i this would make a vast difference, but it would eventually fail, and become abortive, for obvious and various reasons. According to ancient legends, th? old world was utterly destroyed by a flood, and the- degenerate and notoriously wicked denizens thereof were completely swept away. Never in the history of humanity was there experienced sueli a drastic application of the cold water cure. But what immediately follows If ue refer to tbo sacred story we read, "And Noah b<-gau to be an husbandman, and Iμ: planted a vineyard, and he dntnk of the wine and ivas drunken." All this and more occurred in a thorough-going prohibition world. Doubtless Noah received such a shock to his nervous system that he ultimately I became a confirmed drinker, and must have been thoroughly disgusted with water, and looked upon It- as an element only useful for washing *mi sailing ships in, but not a≤ an article fit for human consumption. It has been frequently asserted by careful students that history repeats itself, and moet certainly it would in this connection were such impossibly chimerical measures placed on our Statute-Book. If a man is determined to have alcohol, not the Gods above nor the stalled-oxen below can prevent bun from obtaining it. However, unless the existing law is radically altered I fully expect to see the .experiment tried by tibe will of the people, or rather the will of the women of both sexes inside five years. There are few more determined opponents of the liquor traffic as it now obtains than the writer. I have carefully studied the question ia-

Ide and outside the unholy camp, and mi thoroughly convinced that our only hope of salvation is in State or local government control, and sooner or later I hope it will be placed under tbe management of mcn —to use Buckle's pregnant words —"of undoviating and incorruptible integrity.'"—l am. etc., EXPERTO CREDE.