PROHIBITION.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18016, 7 March 1924, Page 11

PROHIBITION.

. TO THE EDITOR OV "THE PRESS." Sir, —Mr Boyds. in his address on Prohibition to the Methodist Congress yesterday, stated that the Prohibition Party had nearly SO per cent, of the adult voters of the Dominion on their side. Figures cannot lie. and unfortunately the-poll at-the last election sliowed nearly a SO-50 result In effect, with a slight increase (by means of putting all supporters of Prohibition over 21 on the electoral roll) the prohibitionists might carry the majority, and New Zealand then would be in the happy or otherwise state of seeing the bare half of the Dominion dictating to the other half on a matter of conscience. Be the question one of religion, habeas corpus, or freedom of the individual as to eating or drinking, this should not be, as eventually it would lead to lawlessness as in the U.S.A., where a very bitter feeling exists in the State with a set of semireligious fanatics striving to make the whole State live according to their code of law. One can call to mind the fierce strife between the Puritans of Cromwell's time, and their opposition to any other party but their own. They even carried it over to the Ameri. can plantations, as many poor Quakers knew to their cost in not falling into li-e with the Praise God Bare-Bones Party. Fortunately that craze has died away long ago, and to-day one would be ashamed to own any sympathy with such people, just as in future ages one also would be ashamed to be a prohibitionist as a usurper of the attributes of the Almighty Providence alone. / To get back to figures, I grant Mr Royds is quite correct, but a brief analysis will show that of.the 50 per cent against Prohibition, fully 90 per cent, of these are men, and (assuming the men and women voters to be in equal numbers) those in favour would constitute 90 per cent, women. To prove this let Mr Royds or any one else take a poll of 100 pick and shovel men, and he will find my estimate to be about correct, as 90 out of everv 100 would vote for the retention of their beer as a perfectly just and bodily needed food. How did the New Zealand soldiers vote whilst away at the war? Practically they voted en bloc for the retention of beer a 6 a bodily food whilst undergoing great exertions, and this, Mr Editor, was entirely a male vote. Now, amongst the ladies, and especially the younger ones, you will find.t*.e prohibitionists have such a strong hold that many women voters look upon it as a religious duty to vote out the hotels. Where is the sense in 101 women out-voting 100 men who toil in thb fields, factory, or office? I know of one office where fonr male clerks voted against, and six lady typists for Prohibition. A woman's rote is justly equal to a man's, but there is something wrong with a cause that can claim 90 pei cent, of men on one side and 90 per cent, of women on the other. Prohibition from start to finish is illogical and unjust, and voters must be prepared to defend their civic liberies or lose them, as they have in the U.S.A.—Yours, etc, W. H. SAXBY. Christchurch, March 6th, 1924.