The Liquor Question.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8072, 24 August 1905, Page 6

The Liquor Question.

(To tho Editor).

Sill, —I am pleased to seo.the prohibition question again .brought before the voters of Palmerston North by " Taxpayer " in Friday's issue of your valuable paper.. Ro the revenue. Will taxpayer inform us what it cost the country to pay into the Treasury the sum of £554,370 ? Now, it costs the people of Palmerston. North? £24,000, or thereabout, every year and what have we to show for it ? A revenue raised by impoverishment and demoralisation of the people can never be either politic or necessary, while it must ever prove discreditable to the Government receiving it. Gladstone is reported to have said to a deputation of brewers when they triumphantly asked him what he would' dp with the liquor revenue: "Give me a nation of sober Englishmen and. I will take care of tho revenue." Professor Kirk, in dealing with unjust contracts, says : " No soul in God's nniverse really needs a fraction which may not be honestly .come byj no.being in that universe is really the better for that which he gains by another's loss. If for no man's injury but for all men's welfare, this fundamental truth should be engraved in pur souls. It is one of the hinges on which true legislation and government turn, and they should distinguish dishonest and dishonourable contracts, as they should aim to suppress all wrong and cultivate all goodness." Powell quotes the late Canon Stowell as saying in a lecture: "If "the government can control drunkenness it ought to do so, if it does not it is afraid.of its revenue ; what will be lost will come back tenfold in consequence of the promotion of honest industry." And he adds, "This opinion received ample confirmation some years ago in Ireland, where through tho labours of Father Mathew and other great and good men, the consumption of liquor decreased amazingly, and yet the' revenue improved. Between the years of January sth, 1839, and -January sth, 1842, the whole of the decrease of the revenue for the three years from spirits, licenses and malt, £682,611, yet notwithstanding this very heayy reduction arising through the temperance movement, there was an increase of revenue of £90,823 from the increased production of other excisable articles. The revenuo question seems like the transaction of the amateur farmer, who bought four pigs at £l_each, and, after feeding each on £6 worth of corn, sold them for £2 per head, saying that he never expected to make anything on the corn, but he had made £1 a piece on each of the pigs. Anyhow in fattening our city treasuries we can hardly afford to engage in such amateur financing, making £1 in additional revenue by paying out £6 for additional criminal and charity expenses. A boy when asked why he was late for school, said that the walk was so slippery that every time he took one step forward he slipped back two. "Well, then," said the teacher, " how did you get here at last ?" " Oh," said the boy, " I turned around and went the oilier way." It is evident that the only way.to gain in revenue is by turning about from the license svstern, and going the other way in prohibition.—l am, etc.?

Vide et crede,

Palmerston North, August 22nd, 1905,