PROHIBITION COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 19724, 26 November 1927, Page 16

PROHIBITION COLUMN

t Published by Arrangement with the fnited Temperance Reform Council.] The liquor traffic is a drug traffic. It deals in intoxicating liquors containing the injurious narcotic drug alcohol. It is impossible for the State to make gain out of the liquor traffic. The profits will never balance the losses. FINLAND RETAINS PROHIBITION. "Prohibition has given our land a chance to justify its existence.”—The President of the Republic of Finland. Finland has just passed through another election, choosing 200 members of the Riksdag. Prohibition was a prominent issue. Determined efforts were made by the wets to elect members pledged to a programme substituting State Control for Absolute Prohibition. The drys succeeded in electing more than 1-50 legislators pledged to upholding the Prohibition law. There as here the wets emphasised lax enforcement as a reason for change, but this argument failed to convince the voters. The awful effects of State Control in Russia since the fall of 1924 had a groat influence upon the Finnish people in upholding the Prohibition law. In a letter received from Helsingfors the writer says;— “ Prohibition has been a real blessing. If we compare the year 1910 with 1924 we find that the consumption of alcohol has decreased 83.5 per cent., and, as a natural consequence, arrests for drunkenness have decreased by 42.5 per cent., and for vagrancy by 44 per cent. Lunacy has decreased by 12.3 per cent., and the death rate is materially lower. Co-operative societies report an increase in business of 84.7 per cent., and industries return an increased production of 55 per cent. More than 550 new savings banks have opened during the period, the number of depositors exceeding 50,000, the amount deposited being 150,000,000 Finnish marks. Before Prohibition the Finnish Treasury faced an average annual deficit of 300,000 Finnish marks, whereas there has been an average annual surplus of 1807)00,000 marks during the last five years. "Thirty per cent, more students arc attending the universities, 05 per cent, more are at the colleges, and 63 per cent, more children attend the public schools. "These figures I have taken from official Government reports, and they are authentic.” When a man attempts to defend the public house, .ask him if ho wants his son to become a public house patron, and then watch him flounder. HOW TO PAY OUR WAY. Mr W. Machin, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Now Zealand, was reported in the Press of October 28 as follows; “It is no uso blaming the hanks. The remedy lies with us all. Who can successfully fight the banks? But I would like to see them _ conquered by kindness. Suppose during the next year everybody in New Zealand on tho average genuinely produced more to the value of 2s per week, and we saved the resultant £5 a year each, and deposited the £7,000,000 with the banks. They would soon he pressing people to use the money for them at a lower rate of interest. " Then wo might cut our expenses, our non-productive expenses, and release money for productive work. This would restore trade balances and increase our savings—and decrease unemployment. We need more production. Just a little more, and how much it is. Enough to pay our way in periods of low' prices and depression, and make profits and savings when high returns come as gifts of the gods.” Tho New Zealand Drink Bill for 1926 was £8,425,051. By cutting this out, by using this money as suggested by Mr Machin, wo could get all the benefits he depicts, and have £1,425,051 cash balance to the good in addition. Reducing or dropping wasteful expenditure is thrift that is as effective in its results as, each producing 2s more value per week. By cutting out the drink expenditure wo should not only provide the £7,000,000 called for by Mr Machin: we should also increase demand that would inevitably result in tbe_ increased production of value he desires,—‘ Vanguard.’ MAORI PROTEST. In the Town Hall, Hamilton, on Tuesday, October 25, there was a meeting of protest against tho recommendation made by the Bishop of Waikato, that licenses should be granted in the King Country. The hall was packed to the doors, and many were unable to obtain admission. The principal speakers wore Tuwhakaririku Pateua, leading descendant of the famous chief Te Wahanui, and the Rev. Tc Wliarehuia, Methodist minister. In introducing the speakers tho Rev. A. J. Seamer, superintendent of Methodist Maori Missions, stated that 33 out of 34 of the chiefs of tho King Country ' were vigorously opposed to the introduction of license, and ho made an eloquent plea for tho exercise of the true Christian spirit in preventing the evil of the introduction of license to the King Country. Tmvhakaririki Paten a, speaking through an interpreter, referred to the Treaty of Waitangi, and mentioned that before that was signed he and his ancestors became members of the Roman Catholic Church. He recalled the circumstances of the opening of tho country to tho white man, and of tho promises made and given on each side. He concluded his remarks as follows: “ Ladies and gentlemen, only one of two things is now possible; either give back to the Maori the sod and all that it represents, which was put in this barrow in 1885, or keep the promises that tho Government put into the barrow at that time. When the first sod was placed in this barrow, it represented all the land that the Maoris gave for the railway line, and Sir Robert Stout put into the barrow the promise made by the Government on behalf of the people of New Zealand that no liquor should be sold in the King Country. Now I say either keep that promise or give back to the Maori all the land lie gave to the Government, and stop the trains running through tho King Country, and close the King Country to the white people.” Rev. T. Wliarehuia referred to the fact that many of the Maoris who were once wealthy are now poor because they sold their land and spent the money iii liquor. His own ancestors had owned 35,000 acres, andjie, their descendant, owns now only 75 acres, because his ancestors had spent in the hotels the money they had got for their land. Ho concluded as follows: " The Bishop says that everyone knows that hotelkeepers are honorable men. Then, if a license be granted in tbe King Country we will have honorable proprietors. Well, I should like to know who they are. Tho only one I know is a dead one. Tho Bishop quotes Scripture, but he forgets one tost; ‘No man can carve two master,?.’ The Gospel says, ‘ Go and preach the Gospel to all , nations ’ —NOT ‘Go and preach licensed houses to all nations.’ The only place I can find tho devil is in the beer house. I would like the citizens of Hamilton to bo Good Samaritans and sa/o the Maori of tbe King Country, whom the ‘ honorable proprietors ’ would rob by forcing the Government to be loyal to tbe pact of, 1884. The Bishop may think the Maoris beneath his notice and pass by on' tho other side. _ That mav lie his idea, but the teaching of Christ is to love the Maoris an we love ourselves. That is the Christian duty.”