THE COST OF DRUNKENNESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16041, 6 April 1914, Page 6

THE COST OF DRUNKENNESS.

Sib, —I noticed a letter in your issue of to-day showing that 98 persons were convicted for drunkenness in Dunedin, during the month of March. I at once went icto comparisons for my own edification, and felt alarmed at the figures I found. According to statistics taken from the Magis- ' trate's Court returns for 1913, there were in the eight .no-license areas (with a population in 1911 of 101,734), 406 convictions for drunkenness, while in license areas, such as Gisborne, Timaru, Palmerston North, Napier, Taihape, Wangonui, Greymouth, and Warau (with a total Dopulation of 98,417 in 1911) there were 1990 convictions—almost five to one. How can the liquor advocatee account for this alarming . increase. There ie no better argument for . prohibition than these figures, and I believe, Sir, that the time hae come when the people of New Zealand can see through the arguments bo grossly misstated from, time to time by the liquor trade.—l am, etc., • Advocate POLITICAL MACHINATIONS. Sib,—"Liberal" asks whether it is a fact or not that Mr Maseey got into office by machination, or political intrigue. 1 feel sure the questioner does not credit such an assertion, but his aim, nevertheless, is to give publicity to this—to him, ho doubt pleasant —"alleged rumour." As another Liberal, however, I beg emphatically to deny such a mean allegation, and also to etate that it is apparent to all whose vision ie not clouded by prejudice, that when Mr Massey , became Prime Minister he was backed by a maiority of the taxpayers of Now Zealand, who, at the ballot box, had forcibly demonstrated their disapproval of the administration or maladministration of the Liberal party. On the night of last general election I stood outside the office of the New' Zealand Times, at Wellington, when Sir Joseph Ward, who for half-an-hour o* more repeatedly attempted to address the largo crowd which had gathered, and was howled down, to the tune of "We'll hang Joe Ward on a Sour Apple Tree I" I mention this fact with no ill intent, but simply to illustrate my point, because I consider it an insult to the intelligence of the public of thie dominion to be told by '"Liberal,"' or any other person, that it wae not the intention of the electors to oust the so-called "Liberals" from office, and thereby place a new party in power. Their many years of occupancy of the Treasury benches had sapped the true spirit of liberalism from the Liberal party; the requirements of the public were deemed infinitesimal in comparion with their own selfish ends; and consequently New. Zealand applauded the result of the dissolution in 1911; Though I cannot express approval of the methods adopted during the recent strike, I; feel sure that when and his colleagues have had a little more official experience, which will naturally create in them a greater amount of respect for the democratic ideals of the people iii this country, then, I say, we may expect greater satisfaction from them than from that already much decayed organisation "the Liberal party."—l am, «tc.; A Man in the- Stbeet. April 3.