Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1894. AN EXPERIMENT IN PROHIBITION.

Evening Post, Volume XLVII, Issue 87, 13 April 1894, Page 2

Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 18 94. AN EXPERIMENT IN PROHIBITION.

We do not wish harm to any of our neighbours, but we are almost sorry that Prohibition was not carried in one of the large centres of population. It wonld bave been somewhat bard on individuals, no doubt, but thoso who suffered would liuve bad the satisfaction of knowing that thoy wero being martyred for the public good. A very brief experience of Prohibition in, say, DuDedin, would, we doubt not, have raisod a feoling nearly as strong as that excited in South Carolina, although it would not bavo found expression in such a lawless manner. When the good folk of Dunedin found their city arid their trade iujnred, as injured both wonld bo, tboy would soon havo found legitimate means of giving strong expression to their feelings. A little practical experience in a large centre would piiok the Prohibition bnbblo once and for ever. An object-lesson of 'tbo kind would l>o most valuable In tbe Clurha district Prohibition is not likely to havo a really fair trial. Its evil effects will not bo felt there as they would be in a largo town with a considerable floating population. We h^ve already on many occasions quoted authorities to show the evil results of Prohibition in America. We probably shall never have an opportunity for fairly tosting the system in any Dew Zealand centre of population. If we are a wise ; people, not above learning from the experionce of others, we never ehall. Prohibition has been tried not very far from ns, however, and has proved a dismal failure. It has received a fair trial in the fruitgrowing irrigation settlement of Mildura in Victoria established by Metsrs. Chakfey Bros. It will be interesting to New Zcalanders to learn how it has worked there. The Cbriatchuroh Press recently published an account of a lengthy interview with a medical man of long standing, a strictly temperate man, one whose veracity and honour the Press says are unquestionable. " Ab yon no doobt know," said the gentleman, " the settlement of Mildura has since it started been trying the experiment of Prohibition. When it was formed the Weßleyan element, being in the majority, carried the proposal that no licenses should be granted for the retailing of liquor. The settlement, I may say, was perhaps one of tbo best places as regarded its situation for giving the experiment a fair trial. It is isolated at considerable distance from the centres of population, and the rates of carliage arc enormously high. You will therefore see that the residents were removed from tho ordinary temp' at ions which oxigt when forming part of a largo city in which Prohibition is not general; or being in close proximity to a place where liquor is sold freely. The settlement started with no liquor as ono of its conditions, and under, as I think, and as everyone must admit, the most favourable circumstances for trying tho experiment. They had no houses to remove, and therefore, if any plaoi ought to h-vve givon-good results Mildura certainly should have dono so. You ask mo what has been tho result. _ Well, a total and uttor failure from thp point of view of tbo welfare of the community It is only a farco, because there are in a settlement containing some 3000 people no less than 26 sly grogshops. This is the evil, and a most terrible one too, which has resulted from the existenco of Prohibition. Let me tell you how it acts. There are a large number of young men come out to Mildnra with a sum of money to buy a blook of land for fruitgrowing. They get into these places, and tboy spend all their money in sly drinking. They are enabled to have oreies and carry on drinking under the permission to get two gallons whiob they would nover think of doing could they go openly and have their

glas 1 * of beer and wipe in tho face cf tbo woriil and with puhiic opiuion as a corrective, but as thing.-* are there, sly drinking is lho thing that is encouraged, and these young men spend their money in liquor, whereas, if it were not hidden, I feel confident they would not spend one quarter as much. ... I hive seen the streets crowded with drunkeu people, and at Chrißtmas time there wero 240 oofces of liqnor brought in from Melbourne. I have seen tho young men to whom I have referred take a case of whisky into the , and bring their friends round thorn to drink it out. The tnofit torrible scoimb of drunkenness have taken place through tho consumption of largo quantities of liquor like thin. . . . I may siy that 1 know of young men whose bill lor drink was £240 to £2GO. Another man I knew- earned £2 at pumping, and spent £5 in drink. These men would not bo allowed to drink in any roepootable publio house in this manner, nor would tbey if liquor was sold in the ordinary way take, I am convinced, one fourth part as much drink as thoy now do under the Prohibition system. The working men cannot get driuk to snob an extent. Not that the facilities do not exist, but that they cannot afford, excopt very rarely, to pay tho exorbitant prico charged for liquor. That the system is a failure is proved by the fact that the results aro an I have stated. The pottlors are sick cf it. They sco that it ruins the young fellows who come out to settle, and who spend the money in drink that tbey ought to spend on their block.*. Yet tho bigoted people who are in the majority will not see that the systom is doing incalculable harm. I am convinced that none of the drunkenness and excessive spending of tlioir money in driuk wonld result if publio houses existed, because men would not drink to the excess they now do, when it is nnknown, if it was open and above board. . . Apart from tho bad results of the system to which I have referred, there is something still worse, it induces habits of lying, deceit, and dissimulation. There is no difficulty in getting chink at all, but h has to be got by sttbtu'fuiie aiidslyness. . . . lam convinced, from impartial observation whilfct I resided in Mi. dura, that the scenes of drunkenness and dissipation which were apparent, more particularly umongi-t the olats I have alluded to, could sever havo taken place in any de •ently-coiiductcd hotel No man who wa-> carrj injf on a roapectAble hotel would allow the amount of drinking to go on that I have seen in the , for instanco, aud elaenhere in Mildnra. No, sir, Prohibition is a distinct failure there whatever it may have been elsewhere." This is strong testimony, but it does not stand alone. It i» strikingly confirmed by Mr. Julian Thomas, " The Vagabond," who has recently visited Mildura, and whose rejioit, with illustration^, is published as a speciui supplement to the Melbourne Leader ol 24th Alairh He says : — ' During 1h93 tliern were 569 cases heard in Putty including 170 Rrrests, a lar^e proportion being drunks " . . . . The sly prog-selling is, in fact, the all-pre-vailing offei.ee of Mildura residents This class of offender is almost irrepressible ; an fast as one bi ood is put down another comes up. The Government has spent largo suin3 of money to clear this class out, but so far" failed." The population of Mildara is 3500, and the settlement has been in existence six years. Speaking of Mrs. Johnson, who keeps the Coffee Palace, Mr. Thomak says — " She is a born manageress, and sometimes the boarders and tho visitors want managing. When caseo of whisky and bottles from.the sly -grog shops went upstairs to bo consumed in bulrooms, there would occasionally be sounds ot revelry disturbing puucelnl sleep-ra. But tha presence of .Mrs. Johnson or her warning voice frightened these owls. They flee before her like nightbirds before tho fciin. " I hate to ceo cases and bottlos go upstairs" said Mrs. Johnson to me 18 months ago. "Half of the boys don't want to drink more than a glass or so. If they could get that publicly at the bar they would bo satisfied. It is becauso they have to do it on tho sly that they drink more than they ought. The Tomperance law here, instead of being a blessing, ia a curse. If they had decent licensed houses there would not be half tho intemperance. The establishment of the club has done some good in that line, but everybody don't belong to tho club." In writing of Mildura, one must get away from the drink question. Mrs. Johnson, although yount/, is a priioHcal business woman, and she echoes tho voice of all sensible people here "In Commercial Milduia the sly. grog shops subtend a considerable angle, sly drinking is indulged iv every wheio in the most respectable of stores, in quiet, housos in tho suburbs, in tents by the river, in Chinese 'shanties. Into this, a Temperance settlement, thousands of pounds worth of spirits and beer have been yearly impocted wholesale and disposed of retail. The profits are enormous, and enable the sly-grog sellers to risk any fine. The Government, through the Excise Department, has spent an enormous sum in endeavouring to put this down, but without success. And tho people are demoralised by sly drinking, and drink more. As a teuiporanco settlement Mildura is a failure— almost as great a failure as New Eugby, in Tennessee, founded on the same lines by Mr. Thomas Hughes. 'Ihe Messrs. Chaffky admit tnat two or thret licensed houses are needed here. The Police Magistrate has said so from tho bench. The police authorities are of the same opinion. Put it to the vote of local option, and I am told there would be a large majority in favour d a certain number of hotels," Pnqh i-t the experience of Mildnra. The fanatical cry of " No licenses " has there produced the natural result of its being listened to It is to be hoped that this colony will take warning, and profit by the experience of such places.