THE DRINK TRAFFIC IN THE BACK COUNTRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17533, 27 January 1919, Page 7

THE DRINK TRAFFIC IN THE BACK COUNTRY.

TO THXBDITOB. Sib, —Correspondents to the press never weary of writing about the eternal question of prohibit'on versus the liquor trade, but one phase of the matter has not been \ touched of lato —namely, that affecting; the liquor trade in the back-blocks. A visit to licensed and unlicensed shanties in the interior would open the eyes of some people , to-day all over New Zealand. "Dead" beats' stfll congregate about the shanties in great numbers, waiting for travellers and tourists to buy them drink. Shepherds, rabbiters, fencers, and others congregate about these houses, and nearly all the earnings of many of the unfortunates go into the pockets of the liquor distributors, whilst the men fflro' poorly dad. If the history of these backblocks shanties could be written, what a tale of ruined lives would be unfolded in Australasia!_ Thousands of men, young and old, are ruined by the drink habit. The liquor is often of the worst class that "kills every time" if persevered with, and tho game has gone on ever since the discovery V. of gold. Take any goldfields road for eii ample, when the yellow metal was easily ' , won, and there shanties abounded, and when ' hawkers travelled with a case of botttes around the claims and retailed their welt watered poison at a shilling per i nip. Shanties were as thick as farmhouses in the good old days. Between the town of Law-, I rence and Clyde there were 40 sly sellers, and-tho police seldom interfered with, the illicit 'trade. Even now there are shanties, some of them licensed, situated on the J outer_ verge of civilisation, and prying their calling. Men in cities and coan- J ' try districts are being ruined in thousands by over-indulgence in strong drink. Yootfts , are enslaved. before they are out of their teens, and yet advocates axe to be found ' for the continuance of the traffic. Tha , grog_ evil permeates all classes of the community. Scholars,'labourers, artisans, youths in * offices, all fall mdiscriminateb/. Cariyle wrote that the quarts of/Heavy wet wero the ruin ot half the British labourers, and to-day the great money that is earned is makinar the evil more pronounced. Tho gold rushes since 1849 fostered the grog trade enormously, and oar statesmen cannot, or will not grasp the great question. America is setting an example, all too late, of wiping the trade out Why does New' Zealand not-follow such a method? Without grog there would be little need for mental hospitals, inebriate homes, and charitable aid, and the world would be happier.—l am, etc., Refohheb.