NO-LICENSE IN OAMARU.

Evening Star, Issue 14631, 29 July 1911, Page 8

NO-LICENSE IN OAMARU.

TO THE EDXTOB. Sir.—-Seeing that the Liquor party cannet ju.stlv bud fault with anything we re.dlv nave said, they are now trying to put "words in our mouths that we have : inner said, and attacking ns on these. A ■ person sarcastically signing himsel; _ " No"ii cento (tic) ” writes calling attention to tile fact that there have been a number of bakruptcies in Oamaru this year, and so words his letter as to infer that Noiicensc advocates have been claiming ttet Oamaru was now prosperous as a result : of No-license, and that No-license inevi- ; tablv meant prosperity under all condii pious. Since my return from Oamaru 1 have, several times stated plainly- that business in that town was now dull, but Unit this was owing to the fact that they had experienced five years of drought conditions last year being tin; culmination and the worst of the iop. All the business men we interviewed said that in view of the terrible seasonb they had experienced .i was wonderful the way trade had kept i up. However, they all seemed to think that the worst pinch* was yet to come, and !j a m afraid Oamaru will be worse before I it gets better again. ' • The paragraph he risers to, however, stated that there had been a great number iof bankruptcies in Dunedin, where we i have License, and have had no drought tc i speak of. It also said that last year there i-was onlv one bankruptcy in Oamaru, sa j in spite" of hard conditions bankruptcy ■had almost disappeared under No-license, but this last specially bad vear has upset things. No advocate of No-license hafi ever said that the adoption of that policy would keep business good whatever -- a P‘ pened. We do say that, other things being equal, it improves business. _ D Oamaru had been wasting four times what it does now on drink, as it used to, time? there would be worse than they are now. :—I am, etc., I SvCßCTury NO-UCBCSS PABI3L | July 26.