ANTI NO LICENSE SOCIETIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14785, 18 March 1910, Page 8

ANTI NO LICENSE SOCIETIES.

to the nurron. '• t ' l , llt yo;,r ""'respondent ii. Ji. Ij. has broken out again. This time it is with ihc evident intention of helping ino brewers to draw the red ring of State control across the paiii of prohibition. It is singular how closelv this purelv disinterested ••moderate drinker" happens to foilou- the lead of the trade itself. The lirsl object of his proposed society is to agitate for the repsal of the present iocai option law and work for an option law giving ihe people the right to municipalise the trallic. In Ino copy of the Tribune, a local publication run entirely in the interests of " the trade,;' datsd February 13, 1910, the leading article, headed " Our Position in Reference to the Liquor Trade," states:--Another option should lie added to the voting paper giving the electors the right to say whether lhey desire State or municipal control.'' lhiis, in a most singular manner, this alleged moderate drinker, who says that ho is doing what he is out of a lender regard lor (lie moderate drinker's wee drop, happens to be playing exactly the game thai '"the trade" iself is playing. Will "JT. I:'. B," plea«c answer this: Does he believe in compensation for the heensees dispossessed? We all know they would rather be bought out than kicked out. I'i'oiu a considerable knowledge of truly moderate drinkers 1 can say positively that very many of these desire the drink swept out of the country. Those not willing for " the trade" io go are usually, in secret, excessive drinkers. Inese secret, excessive drinkers are led by those persons who are interested in the sale of drink, and it is these latter, and theso only, who carry out the light for the continuance of the traffic. All those who assist them are tools in .their hands, and if they arc drinkers iJio liquor traders regard them merely us sponges io be squeezed dry. I am told that our old friend Mr Win. Thomson- was lately in Dnuedin approaching people to assist hint in a State control propaganda and meetings. We all remember the society started by that gentleman, v.'hicii was merely for electioneering purposes, and which promptly collapsed when the danger point was passed. I do not know how many times the people ale prepared to be fooled, but lliis looks very like another attempt to fool them.—l am, etc., Secretary United Temperance Reform Council.