TYRANNOUS INJUSTICE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9784, 6 October 1917, Page 3

TYRANNOUS INJUSTICE

To the. Editor. "N.Z. Times.” Sir, —The evidence given before the Committee of tho Legislative Council, sotting forth the sacrifices which a clamorous section of the community have compelled the hotelkeepers of the Dominion to suffer, displays the effects of tho tyrrannous injustice and the unscrupulous methods of tho prohibitionists. The whole people of tho country less than three years ago entered into a contract with the. licensed victuallers of New Zealand, stipulating by their votes that they desired no alteration in tho licensing system until another election had been fields But a clamorous, loud-mouthed section of the community bulldozed Parliament into violating this contract, and the result (as appears from your article) will bo that hundreds of licensed hotelkeepers will suffer, such loss as will spell their financial ruin,, It is a rank injustice; no honest business man can support it. Yet •the prohibitionists claimed that they had the support of a business men’s committee, the names of whom havo not yet appeared. This may be taken as an evidence of their shamefacedness in lending themselves to an agitation aimed to make other men suffer —their own fellow-citi-zens—while they themselves escape making any sacrifice at all. I have no interest whatever in hotels; I do not hold a share in a brewery; but on the basic principle of ■ mutual and 'equal sacrifice the action of the prohibitionists and the so-called 1 unknown business men’s committee strikes me as a piece of rank and tyrrannous injustice. Tho action of tho prohibitionists in this particular way can neither shorten nor lengthen the war; and it, cannot bo argued that the efficiency of our soldiers will he enhanced one iota. The action of the prohibitionists in this connection is a species of trickery, which. I am sure honest citizens cannot endorse ; and Parliament, as _ the people’s trustees, ought not to have given their selfish demands any consideration. —I am, etc., f FAIR PLAT.