N. Z. ALLIANCE ACCEPTS LIQUOR CHALLENGE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3140, 23 October 1922, Page 5

N. Z. ALLIANCE ACCEPTS LIQUOR CHALLENGE.

The liquor traffic, in tbe "Evening Post' of October 11, and in other papers, chall enges the New Zealand Allianbe to produce "any evidence that tbe American people have eve- voted or had/an opportunity of voting Upon the question ot National Prohibition." j / \ WHAT ABOU r THE/ALLANTE'S challenge/ The alliance has repeatecfly challenged the New Zealand liquor traffic to produce figures showing that the Customs and Excise revenue from tbe traffic has ever yielded £2,500,000 per annum to the Treasury. The liquor trade has never taken up that challenge. The Government return tabled the House on September 5 shows th.it the largest amount produced by the liquor tiaffic in the way of revenue was in the year ended March 31st, 1922, when it was £1,359,856. For the ihst six months of this fiscal year, April 2, to September oOtb, 1 ( J22, the Government Comptroller of Customs states the total revenue from imported spirits, beer, stout, and wines, and Etcise from New Zealand beer to be £642,160. If it is the same for Ih« next six months, the year w ill pr due.e £1,284,b20 which is £75,500 hB3 than )a3t year, although the duties and Excise have huen doubled as compared wiih last year. And it is ju*t about half ot what the iiqubr traffic claims it yi» Ids in revenue. Who Put it There';— President Harding of the U.S.A., said on July 4 last at Marion Ohio; "The eighteenth amendment denies to a miuority a fancied sense of personal liberty, but the amendment is the will of America, and must be sustained by the Government and public opinion." Chief Justice W. H. Taft, of the U.S.A. is on record that the amend ment is an "overwhelming constitutional expression ot the peopl .' Although attacked from every conoeivable angle, by the liquor interest, the amendment has by the U. S. Supreme Court, been declared again and again to be absolutely valid. The amendment is there because the people put it there A Nation wide Vote is Now On. - After three years of National Prohibition after three years of open and underground propaganda by the liqu< r traffic, after three years of organised attempts to break down aud discredit the Prohibition law, after three years of liquor hired newsbaper propaganda alleging wholesale crime, corruption, drug and dope taking, immorality and disrecpeot for law, af'er three years of iuten.-e effort by every corrupt and contemptible agency in the U.S.A, to mislead the people, 'he people liavn been and are voting • n the domin atingi-stie of whether or not they wish the Prohibition law modified. More than thirty-two organisations have been and are in operation stiiving to get tbe people to nominate for Congress "beer and lirht wine," candidates. What is the result? Late.t advices show thai twenty-three vStates have, by popular vote, nominated their candidates; these twenty-three States have a total population of over 55,500,000—that is to eay, more than ha'f the entire population of the U.S.A. And here is.the result,—after all this frantic effort on the part of the wetsCongressmen nominated dry* IS'2, wets 38—that is to say over 82 per cent, of the people's representatives chosen this year in those States are dry. No people in the world are quicker to scrap a failure than the American*. Would they be voting in such an overwhelming way to retain Prohibition if it was a failure, if it produced the horrors -the liquor party pretends it does ? Could Sir John Foster Fraser say, as he has said: "You do not hear about the one hundred mill ions of Americans who do not break the law"? Here is the opportunity of voting on National Prohibition—there is the result. Another Challenge—Now, then, here is another challenge to the "New Zealand liquor traffic. The liquor traffic is challenged to produce any evidence that justines it in' advertising broadcast that if Prohibition is carried the moderate drinkers in New Zealaud are by thousands going to' become bandits, cut throats, robbers, drug j'teuds, and' dope drinkers. It is challenged to. substantiate its disgusting insinuation that if Prohibition is carried in New Zealand, women not now in the habit of frequen'ing hotel bars, will take tu drinking and become immoral and sly grog sellers. It iu challenged to produce the authority lor its statement that no New Zealand boy is subject to tbe temptation of indulgence at all iu strong drink until he is 21 years of age... the Police Report for 11)21 containing a record of 113 prosecutions of licensees for serving intoxicants to persons under 21 ypars of age. The liquor traffic U further challenged to disclose just how much extra m t profit ia made by charging '/* (id extra on every bottle of spirits ou the ground of increased duties when it had not paid that increased duty. When the liquor traffic has fully replied to this further challenge, the N.Z. Alliance will be ready to hand out a few morc.--N.jjs. Alliance Publicity (?}].