PROHIBITION WHICH DOES NOT PROHIBIT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 70, 21 March 1908, Page 6

PROHIBITION WHICH DOES NOT PROHIBIT.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The account you give of the experiences of Mr. Coles Lα New Zealand in jour issue of 18th March, headed "'Prohibition that-does not prohibit," is calculated to convey many -wrong impressions to the mind of the average purson. In the first place, we are not living under prohibition in any part of Xcw Zealand. While the King Country has certainly no licensed bars, yet our liquor laws are so loose that men are permitted to have drink in their possession—to buy, sell," and traffic in the same in a "Very" open manner. Now, I say this—if we had a prohibitory law, making it illegal under a penalty of imprisonment tcdrsr;in", possession of alcohol in any form, we should experience, then, in the King Country the beneficial effects of true prohibition, for the sly-grog seller will not face gaol. Our friend Mr. Coles says: "Prohibition is a greater cause of drunkenness than all the hotels that ever were built." Well, in answer to this I would like to ask him why in the name of common sense do not the brewers and publicans agitate for so-called prohibition, if it increases drunkenness to such a degree? It would be a fine thing for them, for the more drunkenness the more profit, don't you see. Our friend also says, '"'A man should have liberty to take what he likes, then he wouldn't get drunk. It is the supposed unattainable we are all after.' 1 would refer him to many of our laws, made in the interest of the community as a whole, and not for a few liberty lovers. 1 have seen many men who "had the liberty to take what they liked, and they were eventually the most besotted drunkards ever seen, costing us as taxpayers a very large sum of money to look after in our prisons, homes, and asylums, besides the cost to us of charitable aid for their wives and families. I am afraid Mr. Coles' ideas of prohibition were never very large when matters such as ne states he has seen turn him to vote continuance. I trust ere this he has realised what an awful curse the licensed liquor traffic is to any community which the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone said was responsible for more lies than either war or pestilence.—l am etc., A GOOD TEMPLAR.