SIGNIFICANT FIGURES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 252, 21 October 1908, Page 3

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES.

» (Lyttelton "Times," 29/9/08.) In spite of the fairy tales glibly told by travelling Australians, who know little or nothing of the conditions pre- : vailing in New Zealand, and seem to care leas, so long as they are able to convey to the unthinking that No-license restrains the drinking habits of the people, it is a fact that not the slightest diminution in the drink biE is effected. The prohibition areas are doing their share notwithstanding the feverish anxiety of the Prohibition faction to disguise the obvious fact. A Government return, furnished to the order of ilr. Arnold, MJP., shows that since No-license waa carried in the several districts named, the declared' quantities of liquor sent in and consumed were as follows i— Ashburton: 102,987 gallons of beer, 18.131 gallons of spirits l . Oamaru: 29,196" gallons of beer and spirits, 37,766 ho tiles of beer and spirits, 8 barrels and 18 hogsheads of beer, 564 cases of spirits, 48 cases of beer and porter, 167 flasks of spirits. Invercargill: 114.672 gallons of beer, 7,131 gallons of spirits (in two years). These are the quantities that were declared. In aU of these districts hundreds of gallons of spirts and thousands of gallons of beer are brought in by residents in small quantities that need not be declared, and vast quantities are smuggled in every day. No-license j | drives the trade underground, but does | not curtail it. [Advt.J