N.Z. ALLIANCE ACCEPTS LIQUOR CHALLENGE.

NZ Truth, Issue 882, 21 October 1922, Page 10

N.Z. ALLIANCE ACCEPTS LIQUOR CHALLENGE.

The liquor traffic, m. the "Evening Post" of October 11, and m other papers, challenges the New Zealand Alliance to produce "any evidence that the American people have ever voted or had an opportunity of voting upon the question of National Prohibition." WHAT ABOUT THE ALLIANCE'S CHALLENGE? . The alliance has repeatedly challenged the New Zealand liquor traffic to produce figures showing that the Customs and- Excise revenue from the traffic has ever yielded £ 2,500,000 per annum to the Treasury. The liquor trade has never taken up that challenge. The Government return tabled m the House on September 5 shown that the largest amount produced >by the liquor traffic m the way of revenue was 1 m the year ended March 31, 1922, when it was £1,359,856. -For the first six months of this fiscal year, April 1 to September 30, 1922, the Government Controller of Customs states the total revenue from imported spirits, beer, stout, and wines, and Excise (from New Zealand beer to <be £642,160. If it is the same for- the next six months, the year will produce £1,284,320, which is £75,500 less than last year, although the duties a\id Excise have been doubled as compared with last year. lAnd it is just about half. of what the liquor traffic claims it yields m revenue.' Who Put it There ?-— President Harding of the TiT.S.A., said on July 4 last, at Marion, Ohio: "The eighteenth amendment denies to a minority a fancied sense of personal liberty, but the amendment is the will of America, and must be sustained by the Government and public opinion." . Chief Justice W. H. Taft, of the U.S.A., is v on record that the amendment is an "overwhelming constitutional expression of the people." Although attacked from every conceivable" angle by the liquor interests, the amendment has, by the U.S. Supreme Court, been declared again and again to be absolutely validl The amendment is there because the people put' it there. A" Nation-wide Vote is Now On. — After three years of National "Prohibi-'r tion, after three years of open and underground propaganda 'by the liquor traffic, after three years oC organised attempts to break down and discredit' the Prohibition law, after three years of liquor hired newspaper propaganda alleging wholesale crime, corruption, drug and dope taking, immorality and disrespect for law ; after "three years of intense effort by every corrupt and contemptible agency m the U.S.A. to mislead the people, the people have been and are voting on the dominating issue of whether or not they wish the Prohibition law modified. More than thirty-two organisations have been, and are, m operation striving to get the people to nominate for Congress "beer find light wine" candidates. What- is the result? ... Latest advices show that twentythree States have, by popular vote, nominated their candidates; these

twent£- r three States have a total population of over 55,500,000 — that is to saj r , more than halt the entire way^to retain Prohibition if it. was a failure,. if it- produced the horrors the liquor party pretends it does? Could Sir John Foster Fraser say, as he has said: "You do not hear about the one hundred millions of Americans who. do not break the law?" Here is the opportunity of voting on National Prohibition — there is the result.

Another Challenge. — • Now, then, here is another challenge to the New Zealand liquor traffic. The liquor traffic is challenged to produce any evidence that justifies it m advertising broadcast that if Prohibition is carried the moderate drinkers m New Zealand are by thousands going to 'become bandits, cut - throats, robbers, drug fiends, and dope drinkers. It is challenged to substantiate its disgusting insinuation that if Prohibition is carried m New Zealand, women not row m the habit of frequenting " hotel bars, will take to drinking and become immoral and sly grog sellers. It is challenged to produce the authority for its statement that no New Zealand boy is at present subject to the temptapopulatlbn of the U.S.A. And here is the result, after all this frantic effort on the part of the wets — Congressmen nominated drys 182, wets 38— that is to. say, over 82 per cent, of the people's representatives chosen this year In those States are dry. No people m

ure than the Americans. Would, they bo voting 1 m such an overwhelming tion of indulgence at all m strong drink until he is twenty-one years of age — the Police. Report for 1921 containing a record of 113 prosecutions of licensees for serving intoxicants to persons under 21 years of age. The liquor traffic is further challenged to disclose just how much extra net profit it made by charging 2s 6d extra on every bottle of spirits on the ground of increased ditties, when it had not paid that increased duty. When the liquor traffic has fully replied to this further challenge ,the N.Z. Alliance will be ready to hand out a few rnore.^-N.Z, Alliance Publicity (71).*