Prohibition in Canada.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6900, 12 February 1894, Page 3

Prohibition in Canada.

» Sir, — The telegram published in your issue of Thursday to the effect " that a plebiscite taken in the Province of Ontario showed a proportion of seventeen to eleven in favor of prohibition " is most significant and thoughtcompelling, aud this to all classes in the community whatever their attitude towards this question. To the prohibitionist in the thick of the fight, and on the eve of a great ' contest in March next, the news of this victory will inspire redoubled strength and courage. To the timid and half-hearted it will show that there is some use in fighting. To the apathetic and half-sneering critics who pooh pooh the whole thing it will, if they are capable of thinking at all, make clear the fact that this thing is in the air, that the old order of things must change, and that one of those mysterious movements in the minds of men is upon us, a movement and a struggle into which, whether they like it or not, they will be forced, and have to take sides. To the trade and its partizans the news must be ominous. The Province of Ontario, which has so emphatically declared in favor of prohibition, is the most populous and progressive in the Dominion of Canada. The taking a plebiscite, as they have done, is just taking a direct veto on the question, or in other words, the direct veto which has been such a bugbear to some people here. The question submitted to the plebiscite, aud on which the vote was taken, was as follows : Do you desire the prohibition of the manufacture, importation, and sale of intoxicating liquors ? Now, this is genuine prohibition, very different from the spurious article offered us in New Zealand, where the only prohibition at present possible is that of the sale of liquor in hotels and by grocers ; the manufacture, and sale in clubs, or quantities of two gallons and over, can go on joßt the same, surely a most unjust and unfair thing from every point of view. But let not those engaged in the good cause be discouraged, even if what is possible to us seem hardly worth fighting for. It is the elear duty of everyone who has the cause at heart to work might and main, and at the coming election get as many votes recorded for "No licenses " as can possibly be got. The example of Canada is most instructive and encouraging. Here we have an announcement of victory at a critical and most opportune moment, the eve of a big fight at the polls. And the people of Canada have been long engaged in the struggle with seemingly various fortunes, but in reality with steady and progressive Bucceßß. The will of the people has been again and again thwarted and misconstrued by the legislature, Bometimes ignorantly, more often wilfully, through the influence of the liquor ring and its partizans. No doubt, too, the will of the people itself at first lacked clearness of expression. It has formed and taken shape to itself slowly in the various restrictive and reforming measures passed, -thought and action culminating in " total prohibition." But the measures passed at these various stages have proved far from . useless. They have reduced the consumption of liquor in Canada most enormously. It probably was never so great as in New Zealand, at present it is only about onethird. Nor have the various seeming checks they have had, such as illicit Bales, a return to license of some of the municipalities and districts which had tried no license, the cry that prohibition does not prohibit, etc., been defeated. Rather were they the rebound of the tree which one is trying to uproot and hurl down a hill side. '.The rebound is necessary for loosening the roots, and for impetus to the next effort. Even you, Mr Editor, in some articles you had ou the working of the Scott Act in Canada seem to have lost your usual clearntss of vision, and quite mis-read the signs of the times, taking for failures, checks that were necessary to success. Our present Liquor Bill is a case in point. Temperance people, and especially prohibitionists, are, and very justly too, crying out about its many unfair and unjust provisions. But let them take heart. Depend upon it this check is nothing more than the rebound which \rill shake and lay bare for the axe the roots of the tree which we want to hurl down the abyss, and which by giving definite aim and shape to the will of the people in the form of total prohibition will immensely add to the force of the effort now impending. Let us not lose our opportunity. To anyone carefully watching the current of events among Engbjh speaking communities everything points clearly to total prohibition as the goal of public opinion. It is our duty to give that opinion voice [and shape. If not, we shall surely suffer the penalties. — I am, &c, Alpha.