PROHIBITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 23 June 1923, Page 11

PROHIBITION.

U.S. AND CANADIAN RESULTS. GREAT SUGAR AND MILK CONSUMPTION. '"'Noting the tendency in Australia to discuss seriously prohibition, and with a disinterested mind, I endeavoured to investigate the issue in Canada and the United States," said the Hon. D. F. Denham, a former Premier of Queensland, who was in Auckland to-day, en route to his home in Brisbane. "Various methods of liquor control prevail in Canada, some provinces being dry and others permitting the sale of beers and wines. I spent some time dn Ontario, which is a dry province, and saw a great deal of bother in the border towns owing to a wet province—that of Quebec —being adjacent. But, speaking generally, the prohibition laws are observed in the dry provinces of Canada, and in the United States I wae present at numerous luncheons and public dinners and never once did I see wines or spirits on the table. In the largest hotels ill the provinces and the States I noted men sitting around in the lounges, and was interested to note the absence of liquor, though I was told that anyone who knew how to go about it could got what he wanted —at a price. In fact, I was told that bootlegging was very lucrative. Then, again, there are various shops which sell utensils and materials for the manufacture of almost any liquor. But allowing that the lilw is broken, and that some drinking is going on, by and large, prohibition is succeeding. Certainly there is prosperity on every hand. The candy shops are doing double business, the consumption of milk and ice-cream has increased enormously (in America they won't have cornflower, they demand 16 per cent butter fat in their ice-cream), and there is an immense increase in the eale of soft drinks. 1 met employers of labour who did not vote for prohibition, but who are now pronounced prohibitionists because of tho greater regularity at work and efficiency of their men," The Middle West States of America were suffering somewhat, said Mr. Denham, consequent on the deflation of land values after the boom which held during the war and for some time after. The slump in some instances was very pronounced, and in some of the States there was real distress, and this had been aggravated by a period of drought. But, broadly speaking, the Northern, Southern, and "Eastern States were doing "mighty well." Mr. Denham had been interested to note that the Holstein, or Freisian, cattle seemed to be the most popular in the United States and Canada.