FARMERS AND THE LICENSE QUESTION.
Sir,—l can quite ~ understand that such a sensible letter as that of the 'well-known farmer, Mr. J. P. D. Morgan, of Pukeroro, will be resented by : Mr. -W. J. . Macdermott, secretary of -■ the i Prohibition Alliance. Mr. Macdermott casts > a, scandalous j: reflection .upon, farmers when -he states, in • effect, that they desire extra comforts iat the expense of some poor 'sot's wife. ' I ;assert',*. without :fear of contradiction, that there is no more moral, j law-abiding section of the community in New Zealand- than the farmers,'and for the pro-1 hibitionist section to reflect on ' the morality of their inclinations' is i most;' reprehensible. Mr. Macdermott's' letter only, demonstrates the extreme fanaticism of / theno-license party. Surely the figures. appearing in this morning's Hebald from Invercargill demonstrate . clearly the evil effects of . no-license. Id the last year of license, 1905-1806. : 368 convictions were obtained in Invercargill for criminal offences; in the first year of nolicense, 1906-1907, the convictions • increased to 382; and last •: year amounted to > 368.. "Theft" increased from 21 ' to .'.71. 'cases.; " Procuring ' liquor while, prohibited" ; in-' creased from three to ten cases.. C "Lunacy" increased from 13 ,to 21 cases; and " affiliation ! increased,from 13 to 21 cases. ''These figures confirm the Government • statistics from Maine and other States whore prohibition has been' tried. How misleading the prohibition party has been' in claiming that no-license, means decrease *of crime! Even
drunkenness, in Invercargill, ; under no-license has only decreased from 145 to 113, and then to 86, in spite pf ' : the '. fact that such, a large proportion of the cases ; : of f drunkenness are never seen ;by the police, as they' are securely hidden in the 'home,, or. in the sly-grog shop. If the preachers on the prohibition side are honest they ; will proclaim these figures '; appearing in ; your; paper J this morn-, ing l from ; the: house-tops,-so -as•; to prevent such a backward step as ho-license being taken at the next : local option poll. I am> regarding this matter from amoral standpoint, in the interests of the whole community. It is figures similar to these of Invercargill that will explain why General 'Booth! is ' opposed to ■' prohibition. : : In yesterday's papers J appeared a telegram , from I Oamaru—a no-license centre—stating that a man suffering '* from D.T.'s jumped out of a ; window and was killed,'doubtless maddened by the poisonous liquor i obtained by him' from f some. sly grog-; shop. ■■"'■"';"■'■ ; ' R. W.'Babbt, ;I Wynyard-street.
FARMERS AND THE LICENSE QUESTION.
New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13796, 8 July 1908, Page 11
NZME is the copyright owner for the New Zealand Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence . This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Auckland Libraries and NZME.
Log in