DRINK AND PROHIBITION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIII, Issue 13716, 5 April 1905, Page 9

DRINK AND PROHIBITION.

to' the euitok. Sir, —Why doesn’t your, correspondent “ Veritas” tell us that lowa and Massachusetts- in abandoning State prohibition substituted for it the system of local option, with the result that the State of lowa, with the exception of some 25 towns, and the greater part of the State of Massachusetts are now under no-licenso? In the latter, where only' the men have the franchise, 235,000 votes were cast for, no-license last year. Why doesn’t ho; tell us that in South Carolina, where,! according to him, the State dispensary system “ works splendidly,” sly grog-; selling is rampant and openly defiant?! Bat all this talk- about America is merely a dodge on the part of the liquor sellers to divert attention from: no-license in Neiv Zealand. Why' doesn’t ‘‘ Veritas” tell us that in the' first completed year of no-license the convictions for drunkenness in Ashburton were 1.81 per 1000 inhabitants, in’ Bruce 1.07, and in Mataura .74? “Veritas” might also tell us that most of these drunkards were arrested at railway stations on returning from “license” districts. Such information is of real practical value to the people of New Zealand.—l am, etc., - FACTS. ;