NEW ZEALANDERS WARNED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 79, 15 November 1911, Page 5

NEW ZEALANDERS WARNED.

GOVERN Oil PATTERSON ON PROHIBITION. A STARTLING INDICTMENT. Governor Patterson, in his speech of acceptance of the nomination for Governor of Tennessee by the Democratic Party, stated that in 1906 the total liquor tax was 270,827.87 dollars (£54,000), and in 1907 it had increased to 334,232.14 dollars (£68,000), while now under the general prohibition law of that State not one dollar of revenue has been collected, and the consumption of liquor remains the same. It is this condition of pauperising a State without abating the consumption of alcoholic beverages that will expose the fallacy of prohibition as quickly as anything can. Governor Patterson’s speech is a forceful arraignment of prohibition. Ho handles it without gloves ajad as one who knows. He was reluctant to continue in public life, but finally yielded to the pressure of his advisers, who urged him to accept a renomination on the ground that lie owed it as a public duty to do so. That the Governor has not changed his views on the subject of prohibition will be seen from some of his statements during the course of his admirable speech. Said he:— “Never since our ancestors left the forests of Germany to begin thenconquering march oyer the earth have they perrqitted any other race or any part of their own to control their personal habits, and they never will. “Temperance is right for a man to observe,,for by it he becomes happier, stronger in himself, and a more useful member of society. “Prohibition is wrong, for it never leads’to temperance, but invariably to intemperance, .not only in drink, but in speech and thought.” Ti'rt Governor reviews in detail how he vetoed the measures passed by the Legislature of his State, and taker/a film stand in favour of regulation, lie raid the temperance question had been dealt with in an intemperate way, that' the patient had been killed 1c cure the disease; that enormous properties have been destroyed in Tennessee to enrich people in other States, that they had exenanged the lawf-il sale of liquor for all the evils of lawlessness; that they had decreased their revenues which wfere badly needed to meet the expenses of the Goernment, and had received no benefit in return.

He declared that they had driven reason from her temple and enthroned blind passion, striking with a c ub of vengeance.

Here is a man who has been twice elected Governor of a prohibition State, one who has studied conditions under prohibition laws and emphatically pronounces them ; a dismal failure from every /iowpoint. The .experience of Tenues? *o is the experience of every place where the same conditions; prevail," and it is this very condition that the people are going to, correct, ,and .it is just such fearless,' .intelligent' men as Governor Pattersphj having the coiirage of their convictions, 'that are,doing much toward solving this great, problpm. In the Saute ' wqy," if thp ' people of New Zealand are true to themselves, their \ a,nd , their own, they.! wiir strike ,out 'the. bottom lines on both votingjpapers on .election day. We do riot want, do riot require, a pestiferous noisome weed like prohibition in bur social, political, and religious garden.*