PROHIBITION AND STATE CONTROL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11884, 6 May 1899, Page 9

PROHIBITION AND STATE CONTROL.

TO THE EDITOK. Sir,—General,-Booth lays the tribute of moderation, on our, of late, much-galvanised prohibition. It should not surprise us that so great a man. as tire General is a wise man, who, whilst never flinching from the face to face encounter, yet also sees that strategy) the flank movement, may sometimes be advisable, necessary. The General told, us | that as the devil goes to and fro through the | earth, even so he himself goes to and. fro, I with the express purpose in view of check- |, mating tho arch enemy of man (I speak for the moment after the manner of Salvationists as, actually, I have cast off the belief in a personal “ homed ” and “ hoofed ”). Doubtless the General sees that to exercise the Pope-like authority which he, undoubtedly, possesses to the full, would be straining that authority unwisely, therefore lie does not say to every one who joins the Army, “ Thou shall not drink,” though he knows of the evils caused by the drink traffic' more fully than any man in the world. I greet the reported words of the General with joy, “ It was simply a theory of his that, in the direction of public control lay a possibility of grappling with the gigantic difficulties presented in older countries.” General Booth may rest assured that our difficulties are the same as those in old countries, and always will be whilst private profit is the open object of the drink seller, and the souls and bodies of the victims of excessive drinking a matter of indifference. If the publichouse, under State control, was tiefted at, cay, eight o’clock in the evening 5 if .the attraction of barmaids was withdrawn, and fit and proper maloofficials of good char 1 -

acter were employed to serve for short hours in properly-arranged hire, much good would he effected, and the evil of sly grog-selling would not occur—as it always docs under prohibitive law. As a matter of it is the advocate of State control of the liquor traffic the publican has to fear, not the prohibitionist. Prohibition as a national affair will never be earned, ciy'if so, the law will rot be universally enforced. The suggestion that a .“seaboard boundary” will help, matters is quite a futile argument. Boundaries arc nothing when people have made up their minds to resist tyrannical laws. lam convinced that the very drunkards themselves would appreciate modified control, as something that is done with the intention of Helping people to a*new and better life. I wish I could persuade the prohibitionists to sec the matter as General Booth evidently inclines to see it. —I am, etc., LOUISA BLAKE.