"NO LICENSE."

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10514, 28 November 1899, Page 2

"NO LICENSE."

tO THB EDITOR Of TUB FJUtSS. Sit,— ln your criticism of the no Kcense meeting held on Tuesday night, you plead most earnestly for the liquor-sellers. Your sympathy for the suffering of those who may be injured by the carrying of no license would be most pathetic if ib were not extended to men and women who for years have looked carelessly on at the sufferings of others. Has it never occurred to you that a little consideration and pity might be spared for the wronged wives, the starving c&iMrem, the brokenhearted mothers, who suffer as they do in order that some hundreds of people may fatten on the money, which is the price of blood. Supposing the liquor traffic is abolished in many electorates at the oexfc» local option poll, what would be the result? Certainly for a short time a few may have to suffer a little inconvenience. And why should they not? Have they not caused suffering to thousands and looked on all the time with complacent indifference? Your plea for innocent people is too rich., The term innocent can scarcely be applied' to designate those men and women whose hands are red with the blood of hundreds and thousands clam ruthlessly by tie liquor traffic. You say tfoat those who vote for no license would do evil that good may come. That is not true. But the publicans and brewer* are working evil all tie time, I so that they may live. And if they cannot live without wronging others then they are a poorer lot than we even imagined them to be. If they must live then let them work a* «*h*» do at a tiade that ia fcamks*. I

tidok it ni Oariyle who said, to some man who excused himself for wrong-doing by saying "that he must live," "I do not see tihe necessity.*' We would ask, "Is it necessary for » man to live if be can only do so by inflicting suffering and misery upon his fellow-creatures? The least we on do for the publicans and brewers is to oblige them to retire from a trade which is not creditable, so that they may be compelled to earn a living in a harmless /way. As a mother, my indignation ri*es to boiling point when I lettrn that newspaper editors arc so dead to the call of pity (excepting for the liquor-sellers) that' taey.will pkoe the value of money and property above the value of men, women und children. ' What, to us is trade or revenue if our children for whom we bare suffered, prayed, and toiled, ore destroyed by the trade which produces the revenue? Do you think mothers have no cause to hate that which robs them of their beet and dearest? Yes, and despite all faultfinding and all opposition we will fight in the name of our God, for the deliverance of our children, now growing to manhood end womanhood, from that which takes hold of the best and noblest and destroys them body and soul.

The State expects every mother to train her children to be good citizens, and thenplaces traps atjthe street corners to catch the feef of the unwary and hold them captive until destruction comes upon them. The licensed victuallers are to ask the ladies to assist them in canvassing for the continuance of license. What on insult to ask any woman to help to perpetuate a trade which is the greatest enemy of wives aad mothers. He must be a brave man who would ~be prepared to answer a mother who asked to have restored to her a child degraded, debased, and ruined, with the .plea that he must live. So we will hope that in their quest for ladies to assist them the licensed victuallers will not meet with a woman who has suffered untold misery at their hands. And we will also hope that you, Mr Editor, will be able to feel for those who are the victims, of a trade as deeply as you feel for those who inflict the suffering.—Yours, etc., F. COLE, Christchurch.