A COMPLETE ANSWER.

Northland Age, Volume 25, Issue 26, 15 October 1925, Page 7

A COMPLETE ANSWER.

YOUR BOY’S CHANCE. By WALTER J. ADMAS, (Of the Honolulu Advertiser; Official j Journalist accompanying the United ; States Fleet on its recent visit to New Zealand.) “Prohibition will give your Woy, a chance,’’ reads the wording on the billboards and hoarding's. It will indeed. It will give him a chance to be a sly drinker, a sneak, and perhaps a bootlegger. It will give him a disrespect foi law and eventually for his country. It will, perhaps, bring about the condition 1 which prevails in America to-day where i millions are spent on enforcement method* j and billions ©n bootleg liquor. It will convince him that laws—which j he has always heard are beneficial—can also be silly. Later he will find that laws can well be broken. From this discovery i to actual law-breaking is but a short step ! It will give him a chance to slyly pro- j cure and stealthily drink vile mixtures of ; an alcoholic nature; and will give him a j chance to be blinded by rotten liquor. I It will—if he is an enterprising youth— ; give him a chance to operate a fast : j armoured boat, and run liquor ashore in j one of the many coves which go to make j New Zealand’s coastline a potential paradise for bootleggers. It will give him a chance to see the delectable spectacle of “scofflaw” activity. He will have a chance to see Prohibition agents, police, revenue and customs men. and private agencies discomfited by the bootlegger, and—here’s the point—the j private citizen. It will bestow the priceless privilege of sneakishness and the great boon of hypocrisy upon him.

It will give him a chance to see other- ! wise law-abiding citizens delightedly ! violating a law destined to deprive them of an iuherent right—the right of living as they choose. It will permit him to read in the daily newspapers of a constantly growing list of scandals, crimes, and nasty episodes developing out of law violations. It will enable" him to put a premium upon the slyness that makes law violation safe for the violator, who is backed by | public sentiment in his violations. It will give him a chance to purchase inferior liquors at an exorbitant price and to pay for that liquor not only in money but in seif respect. It will give him a chance to learn deceit, distrust of his own laws, and disrespect for constituted authority. If you doubt that he will have these chances read the daily press of America ; remember that these are just the disclosed instances, and not the hundreds of thousands of undiscovered violations of various laws that take place daily in America.” The record of New Zealand’s men all over the world is sufficient proof that your boy’s chance under Continuance is the best chance he could possibly have. 2