NO-LICENSE NONSENSE!

NZ Truth, Issue 159, 4 July 1908, Page 6

NO-LICENSE NONSENSE!

CSf ristchurch a City of Gloomy Pietists.

Sullen ra^e' and. the irresponsible hysteria of the monomaniac clothes the Prohibition movement m bloouVred garments down'--. -in Christchurch, '.'■ ■-.which is the ba'tjlc-ground of the. contending forces of the South. The Mayor of Oamaru and leading citizens, were produced by. the prayerful party to. show, that under Nolicense the value of property- had, increased, the number of new. buildings was exceptionally large, and the rate had been reduced to 6d. Then anonvm'ohs persons replied pointing out that the value of, property hadn't increased)); so [largely m prohibited Oamaru "as ih beery Timaru, that tlie hew buildings were?insiguificant to the number m beer-drinking places, that the volunie of trade coiri 1 pared unfavorably with that noticeable m the vicinity, of large breweries : also, doubt Avas cast upon the reduced ratc.<'At~ the same time the Socialists m Cathedral Square quoted the rise m values m prohibited Oamaru tp show that Prohibition Avas no solution of the economic problem, as the brutal capitalist collar-, ed the beer money saved by the family, by means of enhanced rents and exhorbitant values generally. „ Thereupon, Tommy Tavlor frantically produced the Mayor of Oamaru again to show that the sixpenny rate reduction Avas a real and tangible financial happening and not a species of phantasmagoria peculiar to a disordered imagination. Also, it Avas mentioned that the Mayor and prominent citizens Ayho ■ signed the manifesto could have said considerably more than they had given utterance to anent the benefits of vNo-license, but they desired to be colorless and non-partisan m their remarks. Doubtless the Cathedral Square orators will now point out that not only haye the prominent citizen capitalists raised the rents and price of commodities to the Avorkers of Oamaru,

TO TRAP THE EX-BEER MONEY.

but the property-OAvnars afore-mentioned, who signed the pleasing manifesto, have benefited by the toilers' beerlessness through the reduction of their rates. What with Prohibition fanatics. Socialistic cranks and stray mad evangelists. Christchurch is having a restless time, and the conmuuiily is m a .simmer of .conflicting emotions. It has been tecoft-

nised m Cluistchurch as the special prerogative of ' the gloomy pietists to belt blue blazes out of the liquor traffic by intemperate remarks about the "hellish trade" at seasonable and unseasonable times : it was. therefore, something >m the nature of • a shoGk to the system when Bung hit back m a brutal manner the other day. A hundred Invercargill capitalists had been trotted out to show m the Christchurch press that the casual drunk m the prohibited city was so strange and seldom a person that residents were forgetting the symptoms of beer, an^d wouldn't recognise them from opium poisoning when they saw them. Thf"-«"on an industrious Bung humorist went through the file of a local naper. the proprietors of which had signed the manifesto, and gave that journal's daily record of drunkenness m Invercargill as shown m the - police court , records for twenty days- Reading the list, one is impressp.d with the conviction ,that Invercargill for its size and Prohibition sentiments, is the beeries£ borough m the universe. The frenzied Prohibitionists have recoiled before the wholly unexpected and astounding- onslaught, but only to gather their forces for <*».- shtieksoinc fusilade of incoherent insinuation. Anybody suffering from ,r that tired feeling ' ought to visit Christchurch: ,ihe electricity m the atmosphere will be\ found beneficial ,to ' a bored system : bux)-._ the place is so full of surprises. that per&pns suffering from weak heart are advised '^Q.. seek a less religious climate. . -*>*' .