DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?

Evening Star, Issue 16993, 15 March 1919, Page 5

DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?

TO Tire EDITOR. Sit.—Our teetotal friends assure us that with the advent of Prohibition crime wi’i largely disappear, and prisons and asylums will become unnecessary. We are encouraged by them to believe that strong drink is the chief Cause of the sin and nti'cry all around ns. These are the assertions of the Prohibition party. What are. the facts of the case, as disclosed by the newspapers of thd last few days? 1. At the last criminal sittings in Puneclm, under License, there were onlv three cases for trial. At Invercargill, under Xoh'cense there were eight cases, two of them for sexual offences. 2 Cottin. who shot M. Clemence.au the other day. is a. studious vouth, it appears, a teetotaller and a non-smoker, Prohnblv his crime was due to the effects of coffee! 3 M'Cartney, the temperance lecturer, alleged that he was set upon and stabbed in several places by two unknown men—prcsumablv moderate drinkers. It now appeans from hi« own confession that the whole story was untrue, and that the wounds were ‘nflicted by himself possibly after several -cups of tea! 4. The Rev. Clarence Eaton was charitable enough in public recently to ask ftod to wither the right hand of all those who dared to vote against Prohibition on April 10; and Air Baton, I assume, never drinks anything stronger than soda water'. If such words and deeds are Iho result of Prohibition. I for one will vote against it, and run the risk of losing the use of mv right hand on April 10. If Messrs Cottin,' M'Cartney, and Eaten had habitually drunk a glass of good ale with their dinner, in all probability they would have been strong enough in body and mind to refrain from their follies—l am, etc.. Moderate. March 14.