PROHIBITION IN CLUTHA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11139, 12 December 1896, Page 5

PROHIBITION IN CLUTHA.

Ouu old friend Mr Palls, aa we have observed once or twice before, ■has a marvellous faculty for invention. ■ln one of his vigorous letters which we publish this morning he says that we have told our readers that “the people of Clutha have tried prohibition, and have given it up as a failure,” and implies that we have ignored the fact that the boundaries of the district have been altered. Itfow, if ,Mr Palk or anyone else who. takes ■an interest in this matter, will turn to the remarks we made yesterday he will find that we admitted that the defeat of prohibition in Clutha was largely due to the peculiar circumstances that existed in the district and to a widespread misapprehension as to the effect of the voting. We did not pronounce the experiment a failure, but suggested, in the mildest manner possible that the fact that a district which obtained prohibition ,by a three-fifths majority at one poll was unable to retain it by a bare majority at the next was strong presumptive evidence that it was not a success. As to the alteration of the boundaries,, we specially called attention to this as accounting for the inclusion of a licensed bouse within the district. Mr Palk seems tp have written without taking the slightest trouble to make himself acquainted with our position. In the concluding paragraph of his letter he asserts that we advised all electors to vote for continuance of licenses as the best means of furthering the interests of the community. If he had taken even a casual glance at our advice, he would have seen that it was addressed only to the electors of the city. We did not pretend to he acquainted with the requirements of all the electorates in the colony, and it would have been a piece of. gross presumption on our part to attempt to instruct people who were necessarily better informed than ourselves.