DUNEDIN SOUTH ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 20019, 9 November 1928, Page 13

DUNEDIN SOUTH ELECTION.

TO TEE EDITOIi, Sir, —Your correspondent, “South End,” calls for a little blunt criticism. His letter is full of maudlin inaccuracies which should be exposed in justice to Mr Taverner. Take his sweeping statement that ho does not know Mr Todd personally, but that ho is “dry,” straight, and would sooner sacrifice votes than his principles. What a ridiculous statement from a man who admits he does not know Mr Todd What does ho base his estimate on? Newspaper report, tittle tattle in the street, or has your correspondent just dreamed it? Personally, 1 think it is an impudent attempt on the part of a dyed-in-the-wool Reform voter to swing votes away from Mr Taverner by posing as a puzzled elector who finally decided on Mr Todd after a muddled course of oneeyed reasoning had been indulged in. Tactics such as these should not be tolerated by any solf-respccting party. Mr Taverner is bound to got the votes of fair-minded people who abhor this sort of electioneering. “South End” shows his fangs at the end of his letter when he writes, “ unless wo combine this election we shall never attain Prohibition.” That is his selfish ambition; vote Prohibition, obtain Prohibition, enforce Prohibition, Prohibition at any price. What matter to him if Prohibition deprives 15,000 men of their employment'? What of the hungry mouths of their children with their breadwinners out of work? What of the economic disaster, the poverty, lawlessness, unemployment, and disregard of the law that will inevitably follow in the wake of Prohibition as surely as night follows day? “South End” does not 1 care. Ho forgets that ho as well as every person that votes Prohibition into this peaceful little country of ours is i individually and collectively responsible for the aftermath of Prohibition cn- J forcemeat: Unthinking people fail to realise that Prohibition in this country j would entail ultimately a greater sum

than that which Sir Joseph Ward proposes to borrow for common-sense development and construction programmes throughout the country. Can New Zealand afford to throw away 90 or 100 millions on a problematic experiment such as Prohibition is? A thousand times No, Therefore, as the other two candidates for _ Dunedin South are avowedly Prohibitionists, there is only one candidate left—Mr Taverner, who is the best all-round man of the three. Here is a man who is honourable and straightforward in all his dealings, who has an unblemished record as councillor and mayor of this city, a man who lias undoubted experience and ability in finance, a man who will place his electorate and his country first and personal, selfish ideals, such as Prohibition, last.—l am, etc., ' Faik Play is Uo.v.vy Plat. iNovomber 8.