CORRESPONDENCE.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 214, 12 November 1896, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

THB I/.S.D. OF PROHIBITION. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — If your " special facilities for judging as to public feeling throughout the colony " on " the unreason of local Prohibition" are as good as your knowledge of the activity of Bands of Hope in working for Mr McNab's return, then no intelligent reader will accept you as a reliable authority on the subject. You ask, " Wbat is local Prohibition but reduction applied to the whole of the colony ?" When we get the power to vote on the Colonial question, you will doubtless say, " What is Colonial Prohibition but reduction applied to the wholo colonies 1" It is not our fault that we are debarred from voting on the Colonial question, but the fault of the party you are supporting. The Mataura electors have only the power to prevent the sale of intoxicating drink in their electorate, and you are not going to frighten them with this " reduction" bogie. If my " rambling statements " are not worthy of a reply, you have a foeman worthy of your steel in the Rev. L. M. Isitt, and if you are not courageous enough to meet him on the public platform and defend the financial interests of the community, perhaps you might be able to induce some of our Borough Councillors to expose the fallacies of Prohibition from a £ s. d. point of view. Don't wait until Mr Isitt has left Gore, and then boast about what could have been done. You say "it is very cheap generosity for Prohibitionists to express their willingness to pay their share of increased taxation, seeing that not one in fifty of them is a ratepayer." With your " special facilities," etc., one would have thought you would have known better than to have made suoh a misleading statement. Such a statement coming from a Prohibitionist would have been characterised as exaggeration or a deliberate falsehood. What percentage of anti-Prohibitionists are ratepayers? "Mr Wallace must know that he is writing nonsense" on the subject of Tapanui and Balclutha's financial position. No, Sir ; you are wrong again. Mr W. leaves the " writing of nonsense " to the Editor of the Matauba Ensign. I cited Tapanui and Balclutha to show your readers that " no license " in the only Prohibition district in New Zealand did not mean increased taxation, but the reverse. By a remarkably strange coincidence these two boroughs have improved their financial position under "no license." "If loss of revenue assists the payment of debts," etc. ; the Hon. W. E. Gladstone said to a deputation of " the trade " : •' Give me a nation of water drinkers, and I will find the revenue and pay off the national debt into the bargain." No one will charge Sir Julius Yogel with being a Prohibition fanatic, and yet when he delivered his Budget speech he congratulated the country on the fact that the liquor revenue had decreased, and prophesied that as the revenue from liquor decreased the property nf the country would increase. _ Is this nonsense ? I asked you to quote a Prohibition district where rates were higher than under license. Were you afraid of a libel action that you have not replied to this imi portant question ? The Kansas people havet ried Prohibition for ten years, and their taxation has decreased instead of increased. This is also true of other Prohibition districts. You say, "In conclusion, we adhere absolutely to our position. Not one fact has been disproved, and our contention that Prohibition would seriously affect the local revenue is still good." You are quite welcome to stand by your coaten--1 tention, but I would remind you of the fact that the figures quoted at the Temperance Convention held in Gore on 22nd July, and circulated throughout the whole electorate, ( still hold good until you can prove that they are fallacious. 1 " Ratepayer " is in error when he says " a Clinton correspondent showed up my figures." My figures, taken from the Court" records, still stand good. The Clinton correspondent pointed out that the refreshment bar was open during a great portion of the two years. But it was open in the face of a vote carried for "no license." The figures quoted by the Government officials support my position. Re trade in the Clutha, some of the largest employers of labor in the Clutha have stated that Prohibition has been beneficial from a commercial point of view. Shopkeepers and a medical man have added their testimony to the benefits of Prohibition from a commercial point of view. Would " Ratepayer " get some of his commercial friends to give testimony on the other side, and if they are afraid or ashamed to sign their names, they might be courageous enough to 1 send their name and address to you, Sir. Thanking you for the space occupied at this busy time. — I am, etc., . A. H. Wallace.