SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 27

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

(Fbom Oub Own Cohbespondent.) INVERCARGILL, January 18. The Bev. R. S. Gray opened the prohibition campaign in Southland with a powerful address given at Victoria Hail on Tuesday evening to a large audience. The lecturer explained how the Prohibition party, who utterly repudiate the suggestion that the Liquor party are entitled to compensation for the wiping out of their trade, had at last agreed to the payment of a sum not exceeding four and a : half million pounds as compensation for the immediate' suppression of the trade. Drink, he said, had been proved to be the chief hindrance to national efficiency, and several nations had already thrown it out. It was a menace to the returning soldier, shaken in nerve by his sufferings on the battefield, and on that ground alone it should be banished from the country. The alliance had perfected its arrangements for the forthcoming campaign, and he called on all who had the interest of their country at heart to not only vote for prohibition themselves, but also to lead others to vote in the same direction.

In seconding . a vote of thanks to the speaker, the Kev. H. W. Burridge referred to the well-known fact that many young New Zealanders who had gone to the war total abstainers had come back with a taste for liquor, and explained that in France the light wines of tlie country could be got at Is a bottle, and light ales' equally as cheap, and as decent tea was often unobtainable, and the wines and ales nearly always in plenty, these drinks were almost universally drunk. Returning to England, the soldiers were unable to get those beverages at prices within their. reach, and so they took to beer and spirits, which were ■more harmful than the drinks to which they had become accustomed in France. ' The Mayor of Invercargill has not given up all hope of getting some of the transports with returning soldiers to discharge at Bluff, but has, with the concurrence of the Borough Council, cabled to Sir Joseph Ward asking him to use his influence in London. When charged on Friday at the Police Court, Invercargill, with wilfully setting fire to property, Wm. Lawrence pleaded guilty to six charges, and was committed lor trial at the next sittings of the Supreme Court in Invercargill. The youth apparently had no other object in setting fire to a number of valuable dwellings than to cause a turn out of the Fire Brigade, of which he was a messenger, so that he appear in uniform. To cover up his traces as a fire-raiser the culprit told a circumstantial tale about hearing some men plotting to burn down one of the places, and even undertook to point them out to a number of the Fire Brigade. Apparently the Borough Council has quite decided that the Public Library will sooner or later be shifted to another ing, as they have now leased to a firm of ironmongers a portion of the Athenaeum building, which it was recently proposed to convert into a newspaper room. A number of new sites are now being offered to the council.

A young prisoner of the Invercargill Reformatory, who was one of a Rang working a-t Otatara, escaped into the bush on Monday afternoon, but was soon recaptured by warders who went in pursuit. Many prisoners have made bolts for liberty, but have so invariably failed that further attempts appeal- to be little short of idiotic It is not long since the attempt to escape cost a prisoner his life. At the prohibition meeting on Tuesday evening the Rev. H. W. Burridge asked a question which must have occurred to many people when considering the matter of compensation, the question being whether those interested in the liquor traffic might not be able after receiving four and a-half millions compensation to re-establish the sale of drink in the Dominion. Tho lecturer replied that the passing of a Prohibition Bill by one Parliament could not prevent the introduction of what for want of a better name might be called amendments in another Parliament, but it was scarcely possible that such a -movement would get any considerable support. It had to be remembered that the agreement to compensation had secured the support to the prohibition movement of large numbers of the country's strongest bu?Sess men, were spending money freely to secure the blessings of prohibition, and would be prepared to spend more to retain them. Also, it was not likely that the taxpayers, after paying four and a-half millions to get rid of the traffic, would allow themselves to be robbed of the advantages for which they had paid so heavily. Tho Ohai Railway Board want to proceed with the first section of a_ railway from Wairio to Ohai, and a commission, of which Mr W. S. Short (Publio Works Defartment) is chariman, has been sitting in nvcrcargill to consider the board's application for an Order-in-Council, the application being supported by Ohai settlers and coalowners and coal mine proprietors along the route of tho proposed line. The principal opposition is from the Nightcaps Coal Company, whose interests would probably be affected by the opening up of many other coal mines, and they are in a strong position, a 1; the proposed Hue would have to tro through tho Nightcaps Company's land. Tho

board quite realise that they will have to pay compensation to the Nightcaps Company, and suggest that the land is worth about £3O an acre, and would not be hurt by building the proposed railway across it. Mr Hrndyside, however, holds that his loss would be very trreat, and will oppose putting an opposition railway through his land with all his might, unless he is paid a very large sum. It may be mentioned that of the seven' members of the O'hai Railway Board three are admittedly interested in coal.

The second Southland wool valuation for the year has been completed, the value for fine crossbred running up to J7id. Even matted wool and pieces were valued at 14id.

Two of tjho biggest hauls of trout secured in Southland for a long time past were caught by Messrs J. Watson and W. Emerson last week-end in the Mataura River near its mouth. These anglers went to fish the Waituna Lagoon, but, failing there, they went along the beach to the river, which they fished with the artificial minnow. Very large sea trout are occasionally got in the lagoon.