THE PRIME MINISTER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1279, 7 November 1911, Page 6

THE PRIME MINISTER.

RECEPTION AT INYERCARGILI* (By To)ci;nii>h.-Freb» Ansodatkm.t Invercargill, November 6. Tiift Premier arrived to-night, and received a cordial reception from a largo crowd at the railway station, llie Mayor made a suitable speech of welcome, and the Southland I'ipo Band played Scottish air'. Sir Joseph lVard niado a short speech from tho carriage platform, in which he acknowledged tho warmth of the reception, lie said some people liau tried to represent that a coolness had grown in the electorate that lie had represented for 24 years. He would undertake to make it pretty vrwm when ho went there, and thero would bo no mora coolness after that. Apidauso). Ho also believed it impossiblo that luyorcaigiU would retrogress to tho side of the reactionary Tories of tho old days. For iwlent and abominable niisrepresentatAii he had never heard unytlnug U> equal what had been circulated in his during his absence. Ho /as salitued that when tho other side of the V iestl .JJ was heard ho would bo on top in tho end (Loud applause.) Sir Joseph \\ ard then took a motor car to his hotel, preceded bv the Hibernian Band. Addresses (and bouquets for Lady Ward) were prosented at Goro and Mataura,

THE INCREASED DRINK BILL. THE MORE NO-LICENSE EXTENDS THE MOKE LIQUOR CONSUMED. Early in the year the Kev. Edward Waiter, 0110 oi tho high priests of prohibition in this country, published his invxoiind observations- upon t.ho Dominion's liquor bill. His iindings emphasise the tact that the more Noijiconso extend:} in ou " Zealand tho greater has grown the consumption, liero is a prohibitionist summary of tho oracio's report:— The J.iev. Edward Walker's annual statement of the New Zealand oxpcndiluro on liquor is always carctuily compiled, and therefore valuable. The Dominion's drink bill for 1910, calculated, as usual, at so much per gallon, tho quantity which passed through the Customs ind Excise, was jC3,503,43&, or £3 13s. lid. per head of population. This represents an increase in tho total of <£170,301, and a rise in tho sum per head of 2s. OJd. The contribution during tho iwclvo months to tho public revenue in the shape of duty was «C 790,631. Tho prohibitionists will affirm that iu tho twelve "dry" areas there is little or no liquor consumed. H that wcro so the pcoplo in licensed areas would have to drink 15 per cent, more per head than has been their habit. To affirm this ia to stamp tho assertion with absurdity! mid the truth is that a deal n ? liquor goes into No-License areas and , warrants the assumption that notwithstanding No-Licenso Ihe moderate users of alcoholic beverages in No-License areas gel as much is ever, and the danger is that they consume more privately than when the hotels were licensed. Then when sly,grog-selling and smngghr,g goea on, legitimate revenue is withdrawn and taxation must be increased to raise .£8<10,0(W, to take tho prohibitionists' e,ildilution; ar.d when properly values fall as the result of No-License and prohibition, the taxation will bo more oppressive and obnoxious to property-holders. However, it is far better to license and control Uie sale of liquor than drive vesprctablo people to adopt devious methods of gratifying a legitimate taste, and the only way to avoid the hypocrisy, cant, and deception prohibition breeds is to strike, out tho bottom Hues on both ballot papers.*

for Children's Hacking Cough at Night, Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, 16. tkl'■