LIQUOR IN ASHBURTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXII, Issue 13574, 21 October 1904, Page 4

LIQUOR IN ASHBURTON.

PnOHtßiTiox in Ashburton is still on its trial, and we arc not prepared, on the experience of fifteen months, to draw very positive conclusions as to the. efficacy of this remedy for the evils of it he liquor traffic. The people of the constituency, who should be the best judges of what is good for them, will have an ©pportunity at the end of next year of confirming or revising. their verdict, and a great deal will turn on their vote. But Canterbury is watching the experiment with interest, and visitors from aa far away as. Auckland, we understand, have gem© out of their way to discover for themselves the state of feeling in the district. One contention of the opponents of no-licenee, it seems to us, must bo abandoned in, face of a return which has just been furnished to Parliament. We have published the figures showing the quantities of liquor sent into Ashburton by rail during the first year of no-license, and when these aro compared with the figures for the previous twelve months it cannot be argued that the consumption of liquor has not diminished There has been a, most marked decrease in the total quantity of liquor carried: into Ashburton town and district. Cases, hogsheads and barrels of ale and stout show a very striking decline, perhaps equal to 40,000 gallons. Similarly the importations of spirits have remarkably decreased. The importations of wine havo apparently been stationary. Naturally the, measures favoured by private consumers show an increase, but the kegs and kilderkins ana jars in the total make no great show when compared with the barrels and hogsheads. The figures would have been still more interesting had the club at Ashburton been shut, and the club is a factor that seriously disturbs all calculations on the present figures.. However, tho fact, remains that Ashburton demands a great deal less liquor now than it did: before no-license cams into force.