£100 FOR PROOF.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18525, 29 October 1925, Page 8

£IOO FOR PROOF.

STATEMENT BY MR FOWLDS LIQUOR AT DANCES. (SPECIAL TO "the thess.") DUNEDIN, October 28. That he had evidence, gained in the course of travelling through New Zealand, that liquor was "contributed" to dances, not by the people who ran the dances, but by others, who wished to stave off Prohibition, was a charge made by the Hon. George Fowlds in the course of a lecture in the Burns Hall. Enquiries made not only evoked a flat denial that anything of the kind occurred in Dunedin, but also brought from Mr A. A. Paapo a challenge to Mr Fowlds to prove his statement. Several people who control dances ill and around Dunedin were fepproached on the subject, and in every case an indignant denial was made that such a practice occurred, or would even be tolerated. One dance hall manager in ono of the suburbs described the statement as "absurd, extravagant, . and misleading, and only, liable to do.harm to the Prohibition cause." Another man who ' organises dances occasionally admitted candidly that he ■ was a Prohibitionist, but said he had never known of such a thing as those alleged taking rdace. Tho matter was referred to Mr Paapo, licensee of the Grand Hotel, who said Mr Fowlds had been a guest in his hotel on more than one occasion during the last seven years. "As chief organiser for tho Reform Party," continued Mr Paape, "I had many opportunities of judging Mr Fowlds as a politician and a gentleman, and I am convinced that the statement he has made must have been uttered on the spur of the moment, and, no doubt, in the heat of the moment, he allowed his eeal to outweigh his judgment. Iu tho fights wo have had from year to year, wo find that the things said by our Prohibition friends have militated against their own cause. The allegation is so ridiculous and so absurd that riiy only feelings are of deepest sympathy with a respected citizen whose indiscretion has led him to mCv© such a foolish statement"lf either Mr Laidlaw or Mr Fowlds can prove to the satisfaction of the editor of tho 'Star,' whose decision I will accept as final and conclusive, that the statement is absolutely true and correct, I will pay £IOO to any charity he likes to nominate."