DRU INVERCARGILL.

NZ Truth, Issue 474, 18 July 1914, Page 5

DRU INVERCARGILL.

Some Fads and Figures. Prohibition's Palpable Plight. Dunedin, ~ despite ' its pubs and • : theatres, is quite a hypocritical, wowseristic city, with a very puritanical air about itj even on Saturday night. Religion,, and secret irreverence go band-in-band m the dour toun, giving the entire atmosphere of the pious place an ideally, double-faced, prospect to suit the crooked outlook, of the mobs - t< of parsonical rulers and wailing old .'_"» women who. have amongst themselves ,tbe. bitingly and bitterly, severe aspect 6t .Christianity which pervades, hypo- , critically always down-at-mouth Dunedin. . .;.. . Of quite a different mould is iniquitous Invercargill, where some few years ago, the parson, the old women, ■ and the skinny lawyers forced prohibiV.ti^a on an unwilling people. That the, ■ disinterested ' people became Stateu»aided, prohibitionists and ultimate law-breakers, the present aspect of affairs m the place amptly proves. Apart from the scenery, drunken par-' ties, and utter j depravity of whole ' sections, of jthe population, Invercargtftfp astounding consumption of beer arid whisky reveals more than anything else the lunacy of those who, indirectly^ were the means of making the areai m the law's eye, a dry one. Instead of the area becoming dry, or even remaining at the decently moderate average,: it went totally back arid with bail beer and polluted sly-grog . .It .has become the WETTEST HOLE IN GOD'S OWN. Invercargniis not now a wowseristic ? 'cbricern, for all its hidden sins, m the blatant days of the fire-eating fanatics, are now stamped on its curious features. There 1 is no sickly air ;«f 1 false -decorum apparent, for strange to "sayi; with the passing: of the pubs, any. little of eiiher item it possessed also • 'vanished. This more than substantiates Renan's trite ' dictum, that forced ' 'morality is worse than the evil itself. The numerous grog shops that, decorate ' the city, the organised mobs of ' '/ drunken wasters that annoy at all hours of the night the repose of worthier folkj the young lad who recently got shot, by Lock! Kin, the Chow, the shikkery state of the scene shifters' (or beer,- shifters') union as detailed elsewhere— all, arid much more' unite m crying' out vehemently against the . 'comically absurd arid fanatic cruelty of prohibition as a forced remedy. Pro- . hlbltion, as. lnvercargill discloses, is a .fraudulent inonvlity, a heart- eating romedy, thrice worse than the eviL The State, however, that united with „ ylhe puling parsons and wailing women ,m inflicting "a hypocritical dryness on Southland's capital, does not seem to v be any bit the laser by the alteration, 1 for liquor is i going the pace all the '~. ' time, and presently at a more alarming' ];..&$ tfian' ever. Why the rate should '!' be, alarnjing to '"Truth" is obyious^- , the custorri of deOent trades has been .'.usurped by the criminal' State' coun- ■. tenanced . sly-grogger and the public "depots' 1 where everyone can eat, drink, arid be merry. , Judge pennistori recently conviqted &> temperance salponkeeper;, of being a party, to. Bly.Tgrogglng. The manager' of thp Club Hotel was charged with • keeping his premises as a place of resort for the consumption of intoxicatf""-. m? liquors. It appears one of the ; rooms* had been fitted up aa a temperance bar. % This bar was used by many persons who brought with, them alcoholic liquors, which they consumed there, the supplying the glasses and soda-water and similar beverages, and charging 3d for THE USE OF THE GLASS, arid 3d ■<* for each bottle of dry stuff., The local beak found that the manager did not keepi this bar, as a place for the consumption of •alcoholic llq- ' uors, but, on appeal- 1 by the complainant, Judge Denriiston very wisely reversed the beak's decision. "I do not ' see," said the. Judge, * 4 how the conduct of the "defendant, as found by the Magistrate, can be construed as only permitting the place to bo used as a reBOrt. To my mind tho defendant clearly :> keeps It to afford- facilities for- the con- ' sumption of liquors on his premises, though not for that purpose solely." , Tho appeal was allowed. How many ''temperance" saloons of a like brand did hit irivercargill Court up to the hearing ot this case ? Twenty times the number of its churches, at any rate, and they oxlst '. still. • With certain sections of the thinking ' public, figures and State returns speak ' more eloquently than mere prosaic print. Figures always speak for them--1 selves at any rate, so "Truth' 1 will delve In and dlsh-up. It must, how- , * over", bo reniombered that, In accepting trie figures given below, within easy roach of Invercargill there are • three brewerlos. The beer manufactured by the latter is largely consumed m li\vercarglll City and on top of this there must be reckoned the largo ••-..- nunnllty of punedtri, Auckland and Gls- ■ ; borho boor -consumed m the town. It will bo observed that the sly-groggors' •,.-ni\fli, v .tho pushes' favorite two gallon ■ koK bavp an uniqup sale,, unprecedented NC.vhn jn Wellington's capital' city. .. s {The .Excjsej returns for tho.'year end- , ln^ tllt s other we'efc. Sisclp'se {ha fact, 1 ; I hiit diirlns 1 the twelve months tho out- < put of the' local breweries mounted to > 137,094 gallons, or simplifying it, to ',:■[ '^sVi GA^P.^ 81 . PER HEAD— '.■ " m|n, woman and child— of the popula'V U6)i' This beisr is always made up In '•' snW casks und'Janj, oontalnluff various quantities from 52 gallons down to 2. ijho latter m a big margin is the popular measure During 1 the year there wtrc sold 575 casks, each containlnK 52 gallons; 40 casks, each containing thlrty-slx gallons; 98 casks,' each containing twenty-seven gallons; 299 casks, each containing eighteen gnll--1 ons; 134 cask*, each containing ton gullonn: '1.687 casks, each containing five gallWH; 2.047 casks, cuch containing TOco gallons; and, eloquently enough, 41,205 casks, each containing two gallons. All this, mind you, at 3d a gallon for duty means a decent thing from dry consumption for tho State. At 2/6 a gallon the value Is well over £17.200, Approaching tho question nearer and utilising the latest recorded figures, we havo tho amount oC liquor consumed locally durlnjr tho month of June, to bo 10.300 gallons, approximately made up •as follows:— 36 fifty-twos (as specified above). 4 twenty-sevens, 18 ci&htcons, 7 tens, 102 fives, 226 threes, and 3,367 twos. An export terms tho above amount to be about tho general aver- [ ago (with a slight perceptible rise annually) throughout the year. Conse- • qucntly, Invercargill has a steadily Inoroa«ing local thirst That tho thirst Is ah exhauativQ local ono Is e««Hy verified. Tbo -wCZ^-* M * — ~ wd< * without

scssor of a IHold -Marshal's baton. On paper It reads so, but m action it is the area, Bupply certain "depots," on tho border and these FREE AND EASY CONCERNS are tho rendezvous of tho various pushes, sly-proggors, temperancesaloon managers and beer-shifters generally, who, all and sundry, purchase the necessary and spread it well übout within tho dry area. Tho whole "depot" business Is merely legalised grocery on a very successful and paying scale. So rampant Is^lhe criminal sly-RroKßcry and the genuine "dry" area of the city Itself that the "foorco" cannot cope with the evil. They may »ay they can, and Indlcato tho Police Court returns, and It's mere hcdfflngr. Kveryone, oven many a mere youth Is a qualified beer-shifter In Invercarßlll, and all this fearful Intemperanco and continual law-brnaklnff are duo In loto to tho walllnK old women, paraonloal wowsers un«l tho canting skinny lawyers who, havo doubly dosod Southland's fair city with a faluc, legally— and who cannot In tho face of fnctH way — criminally aided Immorality. Truly tho trlto dictum of the seer of Treguler Is wondrously applicable—"Forced morality Is an evil remedy." Hotter Htili In this connection, at least, Sh the declaration of John Bright, tho People's Trlbuno, iXJRCB IS NO KEMJSDY.