LIQUOR IN KING COUNTRY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4803, 28 June 1939, Page 2

LIQUOR IN KING COUNTRY.

Sir, —Mr. Gabriel Elliott gave some illuminating facts as to the pact of April, 1885, between King Tawhioa Wahanui, Rewi Maniapoto and the Government “to prevent the sale of liquor in the King Country but not to prevent liquor coming into the area,” according to Mr. Elliott. It. seems rather stretching one’s imagination or credulity to believe that this quibbling arrangement was for the benefit of the Maoris when they have only just to cross the boundary and get as much as they like. King Country Maoris make their own “home-brew” with many times the “kick” in it of ordinary draught or bottled beer in consequence of this “pact,” with the result that keg parties are as common amongst them as amongst pakehas. Times and conditions have changed and we must change with them. At the time of this pact there were only a handful of white people and a large number of Maoris. The position is now reversed by the increase of thousands of white people who have made the King Country what it is by finding the money for roads, electric light, water, hospitals, etc. They pay practically the whole of the rates for these benefits and it is high time that they should be allowed to enjoy the same amenities of life as the rest of the population of the country, even although. Mr. Elliott considers intoxicating liquor a useless luxury. It is not intoxicating unless one takes too much, and the moderate use of it is beneficial besides “making glad the heart of man.” During the last war, the small daily issue to the troops saved thousands of lives from death through exposure. There were very few teetotallers. Frequent reference in the Bible is made as to the use of wine, and let it be noted that on one memorable occasion water was turned into wine, not wine into water. Nine- out of ten men in the King Country are not teetotallers. They are as scarce as snowballs in Hades. Mr. Elliott objects to hotels in the King Country on account of the form of control. There is only one practical form of control and that is by pi'operly run hotels. An hotelkeeper in his own interest will not permit drunkenness and the knowledge of the fact that a man can go and get a drink when he wants it, cures him of wanting it so much.* Nobody wants what is always obtainable, and under good management, hotels in the King Country would be most helpful in stopping illicit traffic in liquor, increasing sobriety, and save the young men a lot of the money they spend in getting in liquor from outside in bulk, to say nothing of their health. The abuse of liquor would then become more the exception than the rule—at present it is the rule.—l am, etc.,

“THIRTY YEARS RESIDENT.”