CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 8910, 26 October 1905, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE NO-LICENSE QUESTION. %

(To the Editor.)

Sir.. — In reply to "Anti-Humbug's" letter in your issue of the 23fd inst. : For argument sake, let us take an / island i with a population of, say, 1000 inhabitants, of whom say 300 are total abstainers.' A' general rate has been struck to carry on all necessary works, etc. Fifty of these people, we will- say, are 'directly and it directly employed in the production and sale of liquor, which does not truly pr<K duce wealth, and is absolutely 'unnecessary to maintain life. "Anti-Humbug'! says 15s in the £ is spent in hotels by travellers and settlers visiting the towns. Well, now, on our island that 16s in the £ is. spent by true wealth producers' to' main- ; tain fifty men who work at a trade which j does not produce true wealth. That, is, their trade does not bring fresh- wealth to the island. If the settlers 'and travel- | lers did not spend that part of the 15s | in the £ in liquor they do, they would have it. They must spend travelling expenses without liquor, and while travellers [and settlers have spending power, townspeople are all right. I can safely say without fear that the prohibition' craze has' been in existence for 1000 years in .a primitive form, and we can thank education for,' the stage it bas now reached. If "Anti-Hum-bug" wants proof of this let lam compare. the poor and down-trodden Britisher with the people of New Zealand. If "AntiI Humbug" would only think and not write thinking people would not be humfiugged. — I am, etc., - • • , , I HUMANBUG. j Opunake, October 25. _•

The apple crop of Nova Scotia which finds its chief market in London, will not be more than one-third the usual yield this year. The fall is from 600,000 barrels fo ii little over £2000,000. • "