HOW NO-LICENSE SUCCEEDS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 7 November 1908, Page 7

HOW NO-LICENSE SUCCEEDS.

SOME FACTS AS TO ASHBTJRTON'S

PROSPERITY (?)

Has No-license succeeded in Ashburton f This is a question very pertinent just now, for it appears, almost by common • consent, that Prohibition stands or falls by Ashburton r s record. Here, then, are some nuts for Prohibitionists, to crack: — • „

1. They say No-license will reduce the rates: Ashburton' s" rates have increased under No-license from Is to Is 9d. ' .

2. They say- there are no bad debts in No-license areas : In* Ashburton, under No-license, the amounts sued for in the Magistrate's Court have increased 49 per cent. At the sitting of the District Court at Ashburton on September 9 no less than nine bankruptcy cases were dealt with.

3V They gay that No-license increases sobriety and diminishes crime : In Ashburton, under 1 No-license, total police offences have increased by 2.27 per cent., those offences relating to liquor by ; 10.75 ;per cent. 4. They say under No-license we can do without police: Ashburton (population 25Q3) finds work for a sergeant and five constables, besides innumerable spies.

5. They say No-license is a "crowning success" : The above facts "show it to be a most ghastly failure, if not a crime on the community.

If it has signally failed in Ashburton, can we reasonably expect.it to succeed anywhere ? • „ , .% . C 905

Several letters to itl'e ate held over. ' ' -