THE SALE OF BIBLES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 70, 23 March 1910, Page 9

THE SALE OF BIBLES.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Various reasons have been given to account for the diminution of the sale of Bibles, but there is one reason which has not been adduced, though it is sufficient of itself, and renders the others unnecessary; that is, that Bibles are not articles which are speedily consumed and therefore need to be replaced at short intervals. It follows, therefore, that when a community ha sheen well supplied—as we are cold ours has been up to the past two years—the demand must lessen.. It cannot be due to want of Bible-reading in schools, which is no new thing; and if it had any effect would have operated long since. And surely our pulpits and Sunday schools are not so disloyal to the Brble as "S. L. P. Himmer" makes out; nor has there been uny great change for the worse, religiously or morally, ■within the past two years in the general community that would account for the change. The very suddenness of the falling off of the sale of Bibles seems to indicate that the majority of those who wish to have Bibles having got them, the demand necessarily lessens.—l am, etc., CHAS. CARTER. TEMPORARY PROHIBITION IN SWEDEN. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Whilst we are puzzled what to do with drunks in trams and trains, our Pakatoa overfilled, and our lock-up too small to accommodate all the drunks who ought to be arrested on Saturday nights, Sweden has set us an example worthy of imitation. Miss A. Symonds Ohlin, of Stockholm, informs us that during the great lock-out of over 80,000 men, prohibition was enforced all over the line by demand of the men, with such beneficial results as to delight all who have at heart the best interests of mankind. GOTHENBERG. Police Court cases of drunkenness— August, InOS (with open bars) 647 August. 1009 (bars closed throe weeks) 113 Reduction 534 First seven days September, 1008 (with open bars) 188 First seven days September, 1000 (bars closed) 3 Reduction 185 Then Government "turned on the taps"' again, with the result that in 12 days there were 250 cases of drunkenness, an increase of 10 over the same period in 1008. Similar experiences resulted in Stockholm: 14.i0 cases in August, 1908, against 168 ca-ses in August, 1009—a reduction of 1282. The police, with one month's experience, declare that such a time of quiet and peace, and "nothing to do," they have never known. They complain of extra work since the bars have been opened again. There was a general demand all over the country for the prohibition to last at least another month, but the authorities ignored the wishes expressed by representatives of all classes and shades of opinion, with results which prove that the open bar is a constant temptation and menace to the people of Sweden, as elsewhere. Recent cablegrams in your paper confirmed the above. —I am, etc., W. J. MACDERMOTT. THE DEPRECIATION OF BULLION. (To the Editor.) Sir.—Not being a speculator in gold mining, or interested in the production of bullion, I did not know that the "price" of gold had come down, but I suppose it is correct. I would like Mr. TL Johnson to explain in what way the decline in the silver and pold production of the mines of Spain and Greece affected the Roman Empire or brought about its fall. I think, in all humility, that Mr. Johnson has mistaken cause for effect, I can understand that when the Plebeians got control of the political machine and taxed land values until all rental "value" was confiscated, or, in other words, "blotted out of existence," the only remaining wealth would be the "values" of labour products. There would then be only labour products available for "exchange," and the "fund"— formed from the "prices" of labour products—would be the only private wealth, were it not for the "values" created by monopoly in the holding and distribution of labour products. I sac that, owing to the blotting out of spurious values by taxation, the wealthy and middle-classes were so impoverished that no capital or money, or spare value, or whatever \re like to call it, was available to work the mines of Spain or Greece. In any case, the products of the mines ■would lower in "price" owing to the -wealthy people having been ruined by the ignorance of the Plebeians blotting out riches. If we followed the teachings of Henry George, and confiscated all "rent" by taxation in all civilised countries, thereby blotting out land values, the world would be so impoverished that civilisation would cease for the want nf "spare" value to stimulate the produrtion of the necessaries of life. "Prices" of products can never remain long at a point which covers the cost of production, unless there is spare value coming into circulation as a stimulant to production.—I am, etc. A. SANFORD. THE BLATCKFORD ARTICLES. (To tbe Editor.) Sir,—l am obliged to Mr Bloodworth for his letter of the 21st inst. I am sorry to disagree with his views as to why Blatchford sought out the "Daily Mail" in order to create a German war scare. Had any person told the Editor of the "Cflarion" twenty years ajgo, when working on the stafT of the "Sunday Chronicle," that he would one day be found heading a Tory campaign against the Democracy, he would', in the language of the isc-riptures, have asked, "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?" With regard to his change of front, Mr. Bloodworth must be quite unfamiliar with Blatciiford's latest confession (vide the "Cl-arion" of a fortnight ago), -wherein he airs his views aa to why he opposes the Liberal Government. If Mr. Bloodworth's memoir has not been dulled by idolism of Blatchford, let mc refer him to the early eighties, when Blatchford scathingly denounced Tory hnmlrag, or to the "period , of the South African war, when his pen was dipped in gall against Messrs. ■Balfour, Wyndham, Chamberlain, and Brodxick. Aye, and against the whole Tory campaign. If language means anything, his present confession means that Toryism is to him preferable to Liberalism, his eandMness has up to now been admitted, but when he uses language at variance with modern thought in the Democratic circles, one innst in fairness decline to champioaiiia,soundness, jNow, if ipoli-