A DISTURBING ELEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 150, 29 June 1925, Page 5

A DISTURBING ELEMENT

TO TUB BDITOB.

•Sir,—One,;does not; find, fault -with Mr. Malton Murray for chopping logic to suit his special pleading, as that is in his day's work. - But when he says, 'Our trade, our politics," is th? motto oifthe liquor trade, ifc sounds uncommonly like the proverbial pot and kettle dispute. Is it not the settled policy of the New Zealand Alliance to rule or ruin in ' this country ? And when did it show, an in anything tending to the country's advancement, apart from trying to force its discredited nostrum upon a people who-are overwhelmingly British in race and sentiment, and therefore object to have their lives ordered and their freedom circumscribed ? ; When ; our men 'were away fighting lor our it" was this same New Zealand Alliance that tried to stam-' P. e(J c. Parliament into an ■ expensive plebiscite. It is generally agreed that certain reforms in the liquor trade are desired, hut the New Zealand Alliance blocks ' the way. It, is not reform it wants, but revolution. And for what? To provide a new fiekTfor the American "boot-leg" interest,'.to create a new order of crime and hew criminals, and then a fleet and a new police force to hunt down the new criminals—and all this in one of the most'sober countries in the world. : ..■.■-. . ' : ..'-

Now,_ apart from the cost to the country, this; Prohibition issue, cropping up ,at every election is a baa business. It is a disturbing elenient, and prevents many matters of local and national importance ■_ from having due considera..tion, and so the country suffers by negfect. ' It, also retards improvement m hotel accommodation, for without security of tenure it is not to be expected that large sums will be spent on building or improving hotels. . ■:. _ But, more important \ than all, is the integrity of our Parliamentary institution, and when an attempt is ' bein«made to make Parliament subservient to an outside caucus, it is time foi the plain man to take his coat off.—l am, etc., ,',-';■ .."."■■".■■.■" .' ■ . "< - VELDON MARKEY.