PUBLICANS AND PERJURY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10901, 7 September 1897, Page 4

PUBLICANS AND PERJURY.

TO THE EBITOE. Sib,—Your contributor "Civis" indulges in his customary sneer at- the prohibition movement in your issue of the 4-ch inst. A Bneer appears to.be the extent to which he assists most modem reforms, whether they are associated with land, labour, or liquor. In his most recent effusion he repeats the attempt to make prohibitionists responsible for the perjury so frequently connected with sly grog prosecutions, and so prominent in tha recent cases tried aS. Balclutha. IE a fair examination is made of the nature of the evidence usually fcendored for the defence of sly grog-sellsrs, and of the character of the witnesses, it must be admitted by anyone whpse judgment" is not blinded by avarice or appetite, that the perjury is always practised for the defence of the publi-. cau., Such acetate of affairs ia not peculiar to Clctha. Whenever a licensing case is before our courts perjury is the principal weapon used by the publicau for his defence, and it will continue to be so long as the legal or illegal sale of liquor is permitted. So far as the social experiment in Glutha has had art opportunity of being tested the bulk of the testimony available shows that it has been j productive of much good. • The loud assertion of the liquor men that more liquor is sold in Clutha now than when licenses flourished is when they come before a magistrate upon a charge of sly grog-oeUing into a solemn oath that not "a drop can be had in Clutha." The 1600 people who voted for Iprohibition in Clutha are" neither fools nor knaves, but ate amoDgst the most industrious, intelligent, and moral men and women in the district. That they should have reaffirmed their desira foe. prohibition last December is solid evidence as to what they think. Thd, efforts to discredit prohibition have been numerous and dishonest. The granting of wholesale licenses, the foolish utterances of a garrulous stipendiary magistrate who fails to conceal, his private oppoßition to prohibition, an administration, of the licensing law by'the Government-such as would disgrace Tammany Hall—all these things were calculated to secure a reversal of Clutha's prohibition vote, but they failed because the people on the spot know the facts where " Civis " imagines them. During several visits I have made to the Clutha during the past "three years, the most recent being last week, I have received tho assurance of clergymen, sborekeepe- s, farmers, and others resident there that drinking of every description has been reduced by at least threefourths, whilst the suppression of the systematic and ,open temptations to drunkenness offered by the licensing system closes tbe schools wh6re every generation was formerly educated.- I cau introduce " Civis "to many homes in the Clutba which have been revolutionised by no license into comfort and prosperity. Being so superior to common folk, "Oivis" will probably sneer at such trifles. Notwithstanding : his hslf truths and cynical treatment of a great social experiment, I believe prohibition ia Clutha has coma to stay ; and I know that hundreds of miserable homes in other parts of/this colony are awaiting the cleansing and elevation that only the prohibition of the liquor traffic wili secure for them.— I am, &0., . f Dunedin, September 4. ' T. B. Taylor.