NO=LICENSE IN OAMARU

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 307, 21 September 1908, Page 8

NO=LICENSE IN OAMARU

1, — ~ EVIDENCE OF AN EYE-WITNESS. ADDRESS BY REV. R. J. PORTER. Tho Rev. R. J. Porter, of Oamanl, preached a powerful sermon in St. John's Church last evening 011 tho No-License question, with special reference to the cffects of No-License in Oamaru. After declaring that experience had proved the futility of regulation of tho liquor traffic as a remedy against its evils, ho said that it was sometimes stated that wherever No-License had been tried it had been an utter failure. Everybody acknowledged that to-day, the advocato of licenses would say. But everybody did not acknowledge it, least of all those who had lived in No-License districts. If No-License, in New Zealand or elsewhere, had been. a complete failure, why did the shrewd, sensible people of the United States vote out this traffic by tremendous majorities? And how was it that tho thoughtful, intelligent Scotchmen of Clutha had voted year bv year against the traffic? It was no longer necessary to go to the United States for the results of No-License; there were five electorates in New Zealand under that system. Ho had resided in one of them during tho whole period of No-License, and before its introduction, and he knew something about its effects. No-License had not made tho district of Oamaru a paradise; no one had ever said it would. Ho said, however, without foar of contradiction, that it had made the district cleaner, healthier, and happier than it had been in all its history. Tho opponents of No-License had said that it would open tho gates to a number of greater evils. Thero would be a loss of £500 or £600 in license fees, which would have to bo made up by. increased rating. A few months ago, despite this loss, the Oamaru Borough Council was able to reduce the rates by 3d. in the £, owing to the increased consumption of gas and water and a larger revenue from now buildings. They wore told that sly grog-selling would bo rampant, and that the last state of affairs would be worse than tho first. Ho acknowledged at once that they had sly grog-selling in the town of Oamaru, but would anybody say that thera was no sly grog-selling in the City of Wellington, under license? There was sly grogselling 111 Oamaru, but it was intended to get rid of it, and tlie authorities would have no peace till it was completely put down. But if thero was as much sly grog-selling in NoLicense districts as the enemies of NoLicense asserted, where was the evidence of it? Sly grog-selling meant drinking, and drinking on the part of a great many people was invariably followed by drunkenness, and drunkenness had, been reduced in Oamaru almost to a minimum. During the last eighteen months under license there wero 285 convictions for drunkenness, and during the first eighteen months under No-License tho number was reduced to 34, of which 30 were stated on the most ro liable authority to represent persons who had either just come in . from licensed areas'in a condition of intoxication, or had brought liquor into Oamaru from a licensed electorate, and drunk it, not wisely by too well. Could any ono say that No-License was useless in tho faco of these reduced returns for drunkenness ?

But what other signs of drinking were there ?. In most New Zealand towns ho supposed there was a considerable number of drunkards in a Saturday night. This city was by no means an exception to the general rule. He had walked through the streets of Wellington the other night between 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock, and noted that. A few weeks ago a visitor from Auckland, anxious to learn the results of No-License, called on him for information as to its working in Oamaru. It was a Saturday, and he told the visitor to go down, town between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. and count the drunken'men he found. The man returned to say that ho had been through all the streets and had not seen a single intoxicated person; This was in a town containing between 5000 and 6000 inhabitants, and on a Saturday night. During the Christ-' mas and New Year festivities thero was not a single arrest for drunkenness. The Caledonian sports were attended by 6000 people, and 9000 persons went to the agricultural show, and there was not a single arrest for drunkenness on either occasion. The Oamaru. gaol was practically empty. The grass used to be cut and the plots dug by prisoners, but nowadays the policemen had"to do this Work; Mr. Porter denied that • there-was more drinking in the homes of the people than under license, and stated that ne knew of many homes which were happier now than they had over been. He also referred at length to the manifesto in support of NoLicense, signed by the Mayor of Oamaru and one hundred of its most prominent citizens, many of whom had been opposed to tho systom till they learned from experience its benefits. Tho signatories included all. the medical men of the town, both editors, all tho headmasters, the president and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, chairman and secretary of the Benevolent Trustees, chairman of the Hospital Trustees, a majority of the borough councillors, the manager of tho woollen factory, the Crown Prosecutor, a valuer of public-houso property, nearly all the builders, and both architects.