THE "SUCCESS" OF NO-LICENSE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 244, 8 July 1908, Page 5

THE "SUCCESS" OF NO-LICENSE.

JUDGED BY ACTUAL RESULTS. The " No-license Handbook " is responsible for" the . statement that the returns of the Ashburton Police Court furnish an unanswerable argument in favour of No-license. In the same work it is' further stated that tho growth of tho town since 1902 lias been steady and uninterrupted, and that; Ashburton is in as sound a position commercially to-day as at any period in its history. How far from' the real truth these statements are will be apparent from a comparison of 1902— the last complete year of licenso—with last year.. Crime In Ashburton. In 1902 the total charges laid in the' Polico Court numbered 309; last year they had increased to 316. In 1902 the offences relating to liquor were; 93; in 1907 they numbered 103, mado up as follows:—Drunkenness, ,44;. selling liquor without a license, 22; prohibited persons procuring liquor, 5; disorderly conductwhilst drunk, 1,; keeping liquor for sale, 4; ; failing, to. notify vendor under Licensing Act, 2;.. failing to notify Clerk of Court, 6; failure to' label padkage of liquor, 4'j failing to give name and ' address when ordering liquor, 3; procuring liquor for prohibited person, 3; found in premises when sly-grog search. warrant executed, 9; total, 103. Thus the only unanswerable argument that Ash,burton can furnish in favour of No-license' 'is,an-increase in crime arid in offences relating to • drink.. The Prosperity of the Town. In tho fivo! years ;sinco No-license tho population of Ashburton has increased from 2oUO to' 2563, which of. itself is eloquent testimony to tho utter stagnation of'the town. Business ,is very bad, over forty establishments having changed hands'since 1903, and fully a dozen businesses "aro now in tho: market. At "least six prominent prohibitionist : trades-' men havo shown themselves so satisfied, with business under the regimo thoy advocated that they havo removed themselves and their businesses to places whbro licenses exist. No less than eleven shops have been burnt out in the last eighteen months, and tho town is so prosperous that in many'cases no effort has been made to re-build.' The debts sued for in the Magistrate's Court have, increased in/amount from £3115 in 1902 to £4633' in 1907, an increase of 49 peri cent., which disposes of tho frequently-expressed opinion that people pay .their debts better' undor Nolicense. . It is said that a largo proportion of business people, are satisfied,; but actions .speak louder than Words, and at'the Courthouse polling-booth, in tho centre of tho business population, the votes cast in 1905 wer.o: 1 /For restoration ... ... '... '618 ■ . , Against restoration ... ... 335 - ;

Majority for. restoration . ... 283 A Question for Temperance Reformers. It is evident that, judged 'by tho .very' test proposed by the Prohibitionists„■ themselves, No-licenso is a failure iii Asliburton. There ; is; no decrease in crime, as shown .by tho Polico Court records; on tho'contrary, thoro is a .slight increase. Instead of increased prosperity, so lavishly •promised, wo ■fined complcto stagnation. Instead of business people enlarging their promises, wo find them falling over each' other in • their hurry to escape from tho town. ' Instead of the workers having a plentiful supply of cash, wo find small debts harder than over to collect. On, : the top of all theso failures, we have the horrors of. sly-grog, with its train of ruined homes. , '■..._■ ■

: In . the face of all these facts,-is it not time for thoso -tejnnerance reformers who believe in j coercion as a' remedy to'ask themselves whether these results are. in spite of,, or' because of, the law they defend?, ; C 905