FINANCE AND LIQUOR.

Evening Star, Issue 19388, 23 October 1926, Page 2

FINANCE AND LIQUOR.

■tO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Mr Harrison, in reply to me on the above, says that he does not wish to write unnecessary letters or piffle. Unfortunately his last letter is no bettor than his first. For instance, it is not ray intention to lay the whole or even the principal blame for unemployment on the liquor traffic. What I pointed out was that, while there is unemployment everywhere, and while both local bodies and the Government find themselves unable to provide further moneys for relief of the workers, there is an annual expenditure yearly in New Zealand of about £10,000,000 on dnnk. I further pointed out that were this expenditure turned into other channels of industry it could not possibly help hut pay more wages and employ more labor than when used for drink The inference was, and my complaint is, that such a monstrously evil thing as the liquor traffic should ho allowed to flourish in our dominion, for, in addition to its record of causing crime, immorality, strife, wretchedness, and poverty, it pays out in wages and employs labor less per thousand pounds invested thaq any other trade. Surely anyone desiring improvement in the workers’ lot cannot help but wish for the day when this parasitical trade will be abolished for ever. Mr Harrison’s quaint reasoning regarding improved conditions under Prohibition being certain to cause unemployment I am quite unable to follow, I would recommend him’to place his views before Mr Philip Snowden JSi : authorities ghp Jiavg ex- /' \ .. V -

pressed similar opinions, and show them their mistake. —I am, etc., Liberty. October 19. [This letter has been abridged. The correspondence is now closed.—-Ed. E.S.]