CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 8909, 25 October 1905, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.-

NO-LICENSE QUESTION.

(To the_ Editor.)

Sir,— "Anti-Humbug" asks if we realise that 15s out of every pound is spent by travellers and eettlers visiting the towns. If 6iich is true they will stilj come, and iv many eases instead of buying drink, will j purchase presents for wives a.nd children, to bay nothing of necessaries of life arid' luxuries" that many are deprived of. 1 would point out. to '_'Anti-Huinbug'l that this country cannot- afford to spend four million sterling for the sake of revenue amounting to £703,153; that is, we" spend£3 11s per headi and in return receive 17s. Further, the liquor traffic only pay £7' in wages for every £100 spent iv. buying liquor ; omer businesses pay £37 in wages out of every £100 spent. 'What do the people Fpencl in hard, cash fur drink perweek in the seven hotels in order to collect £280 per annum "in licensing fees? Well, put it down at a low. estimate, say on an average £30. each per week, that is over £10,080 per annum, to say nothing -of the crop yielded through the use of alcohol. The" .money spent "in other elarmels means prosperity and would give" 20 additional persons viovk for every one employed by the liquor trade. 'Really, the present open-bar system withhoktav.crk from over thirty-three thousand persons. "Anti-Hunibug" say s_ -there is no need for drastic measures. - _ Do you knowthat there a.re thirty thousand drunkards in the colony, and that, hundreds die annually through the vice? Recruits ' are coming on to take their places and if- we don't have drastic measures it. may be that your child or mine may join the great company. In view of this. I would ask "Anti-Humbug,-* if a~ parent, Would" you not sooner pay a bmall amount "" extra in rate if needful, if by so doing you could close tli© open bar, and- thus remove a pitfall from your weaker -brothers' path? -I am, ek-.." ~ "PROGRESS."

We aTe requests to-intimate thnt the judgment obtained- on Tuesday in. the case of J. P. Keen and Co. v. H. Pyke (<l,.im £1 Is lid) was obfauiedin error. Mr Pyke nad previously paid the debt. Mr and Mrs J. W. Hirst,- who have-been on a trip to Europe and Asia, havcaTriyed in Wellington on their return, and areexpected in Hawera by to-morrow's oxpress. - The entry at Messrs Nolan, Tonks and (-'o.'s bull fair, which is being held to-day, is < onsidered satisfactory. The variety and the class of the stock are good, but tho attendance owing to the very wet weather, is not so large as was expected.' Mr A. W. Reid (says the Stratford Post) has patented a very .effective self-acting' tap for regulating a steady flow from the receiver into the milk pasteurisers- in all dairy factories. The appliance, which will" relieve the man in charge "of the necessity of watching that the milk is feeding into the machine in proper quantities, is a two-_ inch nickel tub© having a. smaller tube fitting into it. The latter fits- into an airtight drum which_floats on the milk and regulates the supply. The Stratford Dairy Company are testing fh-e machine at their Skinner road creamery, with a, view of installing it at their "receiving stations. - __ -

A cyclist riding from the; township into Stratford the other night .(the StratfordPost reports) turned off .to pass" a trap,, when a loose horse following the- vehicle became frightened by the- lights and rush-, ed at the cyclist,, who, in his endeavor' to save himself from falling under the wheels- of the trap', went under the horse. He escaped with a snaking, but -his machine was badly smashed up. The accident warned the rider of another bicycle following close behind, and he narrowly escaped being run down by the horse, which bolted towards Toko.

A circumstantial story of witchcraft by means of a heart stuck full of _ pins, lately published in a- Tiverton newspaper, is only one of many similar examples ofBiim'v'in^ superstition in the West Country of England. Not so long-ago a field of standing barley was "overlooked" by an old woman who_desired to add the land to her own acres. - When the owner of the barley sent bis~men to cut it down the cutter, it is said, would not cut, neither would the horses move. The farmer promptly borro.wed -a neighbor's cutter, and that promptly fell to pieces. He had it repaired: and borrowed his neighbor's horses -and "men; then, and not until then, did the stubborn baTley yield to the attack. The explanationof success given by the. farmer Jiimself was that the borrowed _ hoTses and men had not been included iiv the "overlook.ing." A copy of a testimonial received by Mr ' J. Highain. pianoforte tuner, from Mr Watkin Mms, appears in another column. !