THE VISITOR FROM KANSAS

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16665, 25 September 1914, Page 3

THE VISITOR FROM KANSAS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —You took occasion to interview " Dr Sheldon, from Kansas," the other day. What Dr Sheldon said occupied ono whole column of your space. May I crave your indulgence. The " famous author" held up Kansas to us us a grand prohibition example. I would like to show your readers that Kansas must be a very dull and backward place to live in, and that New Zealand has been far more progressive under licensing than Kansas under prohibition. Kansas is the sunflower State on account of its fertility, and its vast expanse of rich agricultural land. There is not a mountain in Kansas, and it is beautifully watered. Its prosperity, however, is best measured by its growth in population, and under prohibition Kansas is so dead that it cannot retain its native-born population. The "Kncycilopeedia Britannica" and " Everyman's" (1914 ed.) supply these facts:'— Kansas Under Prohibition. Yew. Population. Increase per cent, in 20 years. 1890 1,427,096 1910 _ J,690,000 18.4 New Zealand Under Licensing. 1890 625,508 1910 1,002,679 . 60.3 Dr Sheldon and other prohibitionists would like New Zealand to become as dead and stagnant as Kansas, which State is not able to.retain its nativeborn. Young people will not remain under prohibition law, and where no-license prevails in New Zealand the same tendency is being exhibited, and tho towns under no-license do not exhibit the progress towns under licensing display in this Dominion. Dr .Sheldon says Kansas spends £1,000,000 on liquor, and the other States £7,000.000. There are fortynine'States altogether. Thus 40 x 7 millions plus 1 million equals £344.000,000 per annum spent on liquor in the U.S.A., which is over £4 per head of the eighty-live millions of people in the States, whereas we spend £3 14s per head in Now Zealand. D,. Sheldon says "the consumption of alcohol is diminishing every year." That is his dicta, but I regret to say it is not in accord with the fact. The consumption of liquor is increasing in the United States, alhough prohibition covers more than half the territory. Whv? Because prohibition does not promote temperance, and it-is not now admitted to be a temperance reform !# i!ujfl&.-4Kto.--l«we .studied •-iho-.g.ucs,;

tion. The prohibition organ oi America, "The New Voice," acknowledges this, and shows how collateva has boon the growth oi' prohibition and tho growth of liquor consumption. Here are the figures:—ln 1900 there were eighteen millions of the people of the United States living under prohibition. The beer consumed in that year was 1.T20 millions of gallons, or "sixteen gallons per head of the population. In 1011 there were forty-six millions of .people living under prohibition,'•'and the beer consumption AVas-1966 millions of gallons*, or over twenty gallons per head of the population". Yet Dr Sheldon says alcoholicliquor consumption in the United States is a diminishing quantity. Did he mean spirits? Well, the consumption of spirits increased in the same period—while prohibition captured from 18 to 46 millions of people —no less than 25 millions of pilous of spirits per annum. Did Dr Sheldon mean wines? Well, the consumption of wines increased in the same time, under the same conditions by over '2O millions of gallons per annum. A prohibition writer in the "Review of Reviews" (U.S.A.) supports these figures, and tells us that the U.S.A. lead the world in beer consumption, and are only second to Russia in the consumption of distilled splits. _ , There are more insane in proliun-tion-ridden Kansas than in the average of all other States of the Union under licensing, and the reason winso few poor appear in the workhouses or charitable institutions of Kansas is because the State is so poor that it is practising the "farming" out of the indigent among private individuals. (Vide " Encyc. Brit.") New Zealand has nothing to learn from Kansas.—l am, etc., NEW ZEALANDER,