LIQUOR IN THE KING COUNTRY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 609, 11 September 1909, Page 10

LIQUOR IN THE KING COUNTRY.

S terAß.ft-Nsideat ! of.oneof the arriall town* 1 ' las lat<!,y -secured a wholesale- license, il beg to oravo a srn'Lll space m your , paper; in which to Worm jour readers', of.the great, harm': this Stt'hS already done, and is doing. ' When I arrived here-.aboi.t. su, mtoths. -ovorythiuf cheerful and go-ahead in a quiet way There was nd - dcmking as there'was tone to bo got excepting m an illicit way, and of course those' for" th°ei?'ituV tlf" n ? cUlirgo(i to ° mucil ior ineir siuif to allow of-a creat nnmnnt Jwmg sold in that ; way, and tho inajoritv of the residents.hero, boing of moderate-means. they - were not utepared to. pay tho price and lived without it, the tradespeople getting the now ' rg ° T' nB i n lif,llor monev - ' But Jioiv. th& sceno has changed cofiinlefeiv and the town is permeated with drink. Bottles ?L b 5? r , au 4 w'dsKy.aro bought and carried to tho.rejpective tents in sugar-bags or anytliine that will afford easy locomotion and a tenw povary cover, and there-in theso tents'® ir wliaros carousals aro going on • 'flight after night, with, very often a fight to nd m proceedings. AU this.with no polico inspection' ivimteyor,' with tho .result- tliut black eyes and debauched, figures, can bo seen hanging . about the. town at almost any ■ tiino. . • ? Last Sunday wo had a football match tlmt was arranged for that day. 'i'o-daj! Snndav ff/'i ■ ,! m '," n ° tootI)al1 matchf ' but a teihblj drunken man accompanied by another man whom some declare to hi sober, mid others o bo not.so, is struggling' to make his Way up the mam street. All this presents K dreary and hopeless /spectacle to tho observer who thinks and weighs tho meaning of these things There .must bo misery in nmny hearts ami homes in this piaeo to-day, rniscrv that can never tho surface so as to secure it" (need of ; pity. It seems; terrible ' that o, o nmn-aml I- believe that :ono„ man-s vote the .scales ih favour of pollutine the King Country with this traffic, that has been already pronounced a curse in nearly every town in. Hour Zealand hy so Luca a majority

of voters 'at every recent election—and what makes it tho more deplorable is tho fact that many of-the settlers came here with tho determination to start life afresh, knowing it. lacked tho' depraved conditions of their former environment. But they can't escape from it. An enlightened Licensing Bench say they must have it, and. it is brought almost v.-ithin a few chains of their very doors. Hoping, sir, that Dr. Finalay, who, I believe, has promised to test .tho validity, or otherwise of these licenses, will do so unbiasedly and squarclj - , so that the evil shall not thrust itself surreptitiously under tho noses of tho weak and unwary. .thanking you in '■ anticipation,—l am, etc., ' 1 „ ' SQUARE-DEALER. September 8, 1909,