THE PROHIBITION MEMORIAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16602, 14 July 1914, Page 4

THE PROHIBITION MEMORIAL.

TO THE EDITOR. j Sir,—Your correspondent “ Septi- ! mns G.” wants to know “why it is that while tho drink bill has nearly doubled since the first electorate went dry all forms of serious crime havo absolutely decreased.” Of course, tho reason is obvious to all whose thinking faculties are not blighted. Since that first electorate of .Clntlia went “dry,” general crime there has “absolutely decreased” 95 per cent; in Masterton, 87J per cent; Ashburton, 64 per cent; Oamai u, 62 per cent; and generally throughout the twelve no-license electorates, 74 per cent. To use the 'words also of tho Chief Justice, uttered at Auckland some four years ago: “"With regard to Otago, ono reason for the low criminal rate there might be owing to the fact that two-thirds of the people are living under no-license.” It is admitted that, owing to the evil conditions attaching to the three breweries operating in Invercargill and the close proximity of licensed places, in proportion to the population moro liquor goes into that town than into any other no-license district. Yet, how is it, despite such serious drawbacks, that the reported offences for the year 1912 in the Invercargill police district, which includes three l icense areas, were only 713, as against 2197 and 2445 respectively in tho Napier and Wanganui police districts, with smaller populations ? Even a little place like Gisborne had 1424 offences more than Invercargill in the year 1908. If prohibition is only a political agitation how is it that whilst the drink arrests for the dominion averaged .11.01 per 1000 of population, the" arrests in ,no-license Clutha averaged only 1 per 2000 of population; Oainaru, 1.8 per 1000; Ashburton, 1.9 per 1000; Mataura, 2 per 1000; Invercargill 5.5 per 1000 people?—l am, etc., Jb .a. Christchurch, July 7.