OVERHEARD IN THE TRAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 83, 7 April 1919, Page 6

OVERHEARD IN THE TRAIN.

"Look here, Joe, old man, what's all this talk, about Compensation to the 'booze ' trade'! Why should the blighters be compensated? They've had enough of the country's money, I jeckon, and a good whack of mine, too. It's time we put 'em out and got State Control. The wowsers won't like it, but that's the thing for the country alright."

" Well, I don't know, Bill! I used to think that, but I was yarning to Hamstrung the other day, and I asked him, what State Control would cost, and he said he wasn't sure, but he thought about ten million pounds. I asked hin* what in Halifax that was for, and ha said some of it was for goodwill, and some for the properties. 'Goodwill,' says I, 'what's the difference betweea that and compensation?' He said he didn't know, 'but he supposed you couldn't buy a business without paying goodwill. Then I asks him whether there was any fixed amount to be paid, and he said, ' No, there was no fixed amount, but he thought it would be about the same as the compensation the 'Trade' will get if prohibit tion i s carried now. But I'm not so sura; about it."

"Neither am I, Joe! Hamstrung**, mixed up in the blanky thing somehow, 'Moderate' League, or something. And I've got an idea that he's being paid for boosting it. It's no good to mc. I'll go you a fiver that if they get State control, the blighter's 'U "get five or six millions instead of four and a-half. You know blinkin' well what them dern valuation 'courts are. Prices are always bumped up when it's the country's money, and the 'Trade' don't care a, continental how much they claim!" "By Jove, Bill, there's something ia that."

" Yes, and nobody knows how much we'll have to pay for the properties. There's the pinch. What do we want all the blooming breweries and ramshackle old pubs for, anyhow? We'll have to pay eight or nine millions for them, and then we'll have the whole blanky lot on our hands. No gamble in booze joints for mc! Let 'em sell their own properties. I'll tell you the game. Let's put it out on the 10th. and try the country without any of it—without booze at nl! If it fails we can have a shot at State Control then, without paying any more. You know what you've got to pay on the April 10 stunt. " That's fixed. But I'm hanged if you can tell the other way. That's mine, anyhow— I'm for voting for Prohibition this time, and give it a show. It's time the thing was ' fired '— more than time. It's no good to anybody but ' Bung' himself. The mob that worked the Yalintine proclamation fake ought to be poll-axed, any way!"—* (Ad.)