Local Option in New Zealand and in the United States.

Otago Witness, Issue 2539, 12 November 1902, Page 21

Local Op tion in New Zealand and in the United States.

']- • ' • ■ TO THE EDROS. Sib, — The question of license or no-license seems to be rousing more interest at this election than the choosing of representatives, and eeems to have assumed a new phase. Heretofore the interest in tne subject has been mainly confined to professed ' prohibitionists on the one hand and to "the trade" on the other; but now it has spread to multitudes of others. It is interesting to find that in those States of the Union in which local option has been tried fhe same thing is going on, as will be seen from the following statement in an article just published: — '"In communities which have given no-license.- a trial for a- sufficient period to test its results the ranks of those who began the agitation from moral motives are steadily reinforced by Conservative citi- , zeiie, who are convinced that, merely for financial and economic reasons, it is. better to close he saloons than to license them." Let us see, then, what has, brought about" this change in the local option States of New England. Three of the six States have general prohibition established by statute— namely, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; and the other three — Massachusetts, { Rhode Island, and Cocnecticutt — have local ) option. -Of the prohibition- States, especially Maine, we have heard more than enough, and he writer I refer to admits that, in each of the three States that Jhavc adopted general prohibition there is increasing restlessness under the exactions of that system and the scandals which arise from it. But he declares that in the local option States there are no manifestations of discontent. There no-license has been tried on a much larger scale than in New Zealand, for Massachusetts this year finds 13 of its 33 cities, and 238 of its 320 towns, j voluntarily under no-license through the expressed will of the voters, and there is a decided tendency toward a stable equilibrium in the voting, in spite of the fact that a bare majority is sufficient. The fact that in a single State such a large proportion of the -cities and'S:owns have voted "No-license" goes far to prove the success of the system. But there is specific- evidence, apparently .conclusive, as ■ to the diminution of drunkenness, pauperism, crime, and insanity. In 1895 the Massachusetts Bureau ©t Labour-. Statistics,;' under special instructions from the Regis- ' lafcure, made an investigation of the relation of -the liquor traffic . to " pauperism, ' crime, and insanity. And the statistics collected showed in no-license cities and towns 9.%J arrests for drunkenness to every 1000 of the population, as against 36.24 per 1000 J i in the others. The case of Brockton, a town of 40,063 inhabitants, is particularly interesting. -In December, 1897, after having voted "noi license" for 11 years consecutively, it voted for "license" by a majority of 13. During the no-license year, beginning May 1, 1597, the arrests for drunkenness numbered 435; and for assaults 44 ; during the license year beginning May, IS9B, the numbei-3 rose to 1627 and 99 respectively. One year of this wae enough fOT Brockton, for it returned tr no-license the next year by a majority of 2132, and the arrests for 1899 dropped to 455 and 66. This was a very neat and telling experiment, and, ac my authority remarks, there is .ao escaping the conclusion drawn from these and other statistics that the closing of the "saloons" does sensibly diminish drunkenness. Now, as to pauperism, crime, and insanity, the report of the Massachusetts Bureau established the facts that more than two-fifths of the pauperism in that State is directly attributable to drink; that at leaet offe-fourth of the cases of insanity are due to the same cause ; and that, apart from convictions for drunkenness, intemperance is responsible for one-half of the crime. The "protest" from residents of t&e Chitha — recently published — should go a long way towards' settling the' question there. Evidence of a, similar character, and • equally conclusive, is available as to the effect of "no-license" in Cambridge, Mass., '[ a city of 91,886 inhabitants. This city has j voted "No-license" ,for 16 consecutive years, and a careful comparison has been made of the period of 10 years, from 1875 to 1885, during which licensing was allowed, and the 15 yeare following undei mo-license. The growth of the population ajid the increase in the number of new houses annually built were nearly twice as great during the nolicense period ; the valuation* of the city, which during the formei period had actually diminished by £600,000, iaicrpa6ed by more than £7,100,000 during the no-license ; period; and the average annual gain in i the savings banks deposits was nearly three i times as great in the no-license as in the X license years. - A« might be expected, . th& majorities for no-license at the annual voting have steadily increased. The general conclusion arrived at by the authority referred to is that, although the Massachusetts system may not be perfect, rt ie doubtful whether there has yet been devised a plap of dealing with the liquor traffic which, on the whole, works better. The same remedy for the same evil is available to us, and we should apply it vigorously and fearlessly, instead of listening to thoee foolish or designing people who try to humbug the voters by suggesting other schemes such a« statutory colonial prohibition, the Gothenburg plan, or the company method, or by preaching "regulation" of the traffic i We have tried regulation long enough, and we find that the more the traffic is "regulated" the worse. and the more defiant it becomes. — I am, etc., J. "MacGregoh. Dunedin, November 10.

A coal lease has been granted over 25 acres near the Buller road, Westport, to Stefano de Filippi, for a term of 42 years, at a royalty of 6d per ton, the output for each year of the term to be 500 tone.