PROHIBITION IN THE CLUTHA.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1028, 6 April 1894, Page 5

PROHIBITION IN THE CLUTHA.

TO THE EDITOa. Sin, — The returns of the local option poll throughout the colony seem all to have been made, and it would appear that the Clutha Electorate is the only one which has declared by the three-fifths majority for prohibition. It should not be lost sight of that this result is not due to any spasmodic effort on the part of prohibitionists here. It is due to the experience which a large number of the electors have already had of the excellent effects produced by the closing of liquor bars. For six years now we have had no traffic in drink over a considerable portion of the electorate, and many who voted for "moderate " licensing committees three and six years ago have heen so satisfied with the improvement which the_ closing of the drink traffic has made in their own neighborhood that at the recent poll they voted with the temperance party. When the Puerua hotel was closed six years ago a respectable minority of people "were opposed to the action of the licensing committee, but such has been the educating influence of those six years of local prohibition that at the recent poll 64 votes were recorded in Puerua iv favor of prohibition aad only one on the other side. This is a significant feature of the poll, and full of encouragement to the temperance party. Our experiment on the smaller scale has been perfectly satisfactory, and we believe that the experiment on the larger scale, which we have now the opportunity of making under the eyes of the colony, will be equally successful, and will in the same way lead to wider applications. — I am, etc., A. M.'Dalbymi'le. The Manse, Puerua, March 31.