LICENSING PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 244, 16 July 1928, Page 10

LICENSING PROBLEMS

sir In your issue this morning Mr. TT R.’ French refers to nil incident, nowthirteen years old, whereby he attempted nine yem-s ago to’accuse of heartless callousness the then deceased leader of the Moderate League, the late Mr. A. ‘ • Menteath. You have published in a footnote “The Dominion’s” report of the ncident, and it is obvious to any intel - gent reader that the late Mr. Menteath was speaking in terms of general pniiciples relating to the building of human Character and 'not of individual case si stated at the Napier meeting in,l9W. inferred to by Mr. French, that the citizens of New Zealand would remember the late Mr A. S. Menteath as one of the kindliest and most humane gentlemen that have ever graced the public life of this country; and there is no need to emphasise this in the columns of a paper, published in Wellington, where his fellow-citizens hold his memory in deep respect. I stated in 1919 and I now repeat that it is most regrettable to find the prohibitionists attacking the good name of the departed for propaganda purposes. Another of your correspondents, “Business Man,” speaks in indefinite terms of a scientific proclamation from the “house-tops.” Scientists do not proclaim from the ; “house-tops’,’—they prove by logic and reason. They leave proclamation from the “house tops” to propagandists. The moEt important declaration from scientists on the question of •alcohol is that of -the British Committee published by the British Government in 1918. in which, concluding 183 pages ot closely reasoned examination and argument, the Scientific Committee appointed by the British Government stated: “The' agreeable effects which the majority of people experience from the use of alcoholic beverages can be produced by doses of alcohol —moderate in quantity and taken in adequate dilution and at sufficient intervals—which will not. in normally constituted persons, be attended with appreciable risk to physical or mental' health.” ', It is remarkable that when the New Zealand Alliance finds itself in a difficulty its snipers get to work. We stillawait a reply from the New Zealand Alliance to our letter appearing in your issue of July 3, in which we challenged the prohibition party to agrqe to “trust the people,” by submitting an extra ballot paper at the next general election, whereby the electors could determine whether the period.between the licensing polls should remain as at present or be increased. .Will the alliance reply?—l am, etc., R. A. ARMSTRONG. Dominion Secretary. New Zealand Licensing Reform Association. July 13.