THE NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 91, 30 November 1911, Page 6

THE NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE.

ITS MANIFESTO. A VOLTE FACE. [t ir not so long since the members of the Now Zealand under whose banker now range all the prohibitionists, reverend and unreverend, all the No-License advocates, religious and linregilious, proclaimed to the world that what they now seek to enforce was "utterly foreign to the fundamental principles of British law " That is to say, that the prohibitionists condemned that winch they now approve. . Those who take an interest in the lienor question will remember that the late Mr Scddon put forward an amending Licensing Bill, in which appeared the famous clause 9, which was briefly interpreted as the no-license-no-liquor clause. It made the possession of liquor in No-license areas a crime, and was certainly designed to make Prohibition effectve, if anything could The Prohibitionists were set by the ears. They did not want nolicense to mean no-liquor then, ana so they issued a manifesto ill which this proposal was vigorously denounced. Here is an extract from the manifesto hearing upon the point:— "To make the possession of liquor a crime, the effective detecttion of which would require ; tho correlative right of search in every house, would 1)6 to establish an odious and inquisitorial tyranny, utterlv foreign to the funda- • mental principles of British law and to the whole spirit of British

law." Now the principles of British law, like the principles of ethics, never change: The principles of British law and the fen Commandments stand unassailed and unassailable. There! ore, what would 1)0 an "odious and inquisitorial tyranny" in' 1904, and "utterly foreign to the principles of British aw then would'in 1911; be equally odious and equally- inquisitorial tyrannous. By all men' and women who have not* lost their reason over this question that postulate and deduction must he accepted: ' ' ' , . But behold the volte face of the Prohibitionists to-day! They now urge the people to vote for; National Prohibition and No-liccnso;- and if they persuade the people of New Zealand to adopt their views and follow their instructions, the importation, sale or manufacture of alcoholic liquors, even for home consumption, becomes a crime punishable* by a fine ci £11)1) tor the first offence and for the second offence a term of three months imprisonment will be imposed. That is the law and its, penalty. _ Surely moderate men and women will pause before they approve and vote for the adoption of a law that will make a criminal of a man or a women who is found with alcoholic liquors in thenpossession.'. If moderate men and women who hate drunkenness, but live soberly and use wine and beer and whisky as daily articles of diet and in their social' intercourse, are now by this Prohibitionist law to be made criminals if they import or make any of these commodities, will not the conditions of living in New Zealand be made utterly intolerable? Here the Prohibitionists are,-as Lincoln said, making a crime of that which is no crime, and subjecting moderate men and women to 'intolerable inconvienienee and probable loss of health. This law proposed in 1904, so odious then, is odorous now to the nostrils of all Prohibitionists. This law, "inquisitorial tyranny'" then, is now a delightful piece of legislation winch all Prohibitionists will take pains to enforce. This law, which then involved the right of search of every house at any hours of the day or night, will make' a police search of any house at any hour imperative if Prohibition is carried. All the Probibitionists have to do is to set their organised_ army of spies.to work to watch certain private citizens, whom they suspect of having cases of wine in their houses, and whether.their suspicions are right or wrong the Prohibitionists can ring up the police and force them to ransick any private house in the city to discover alcoholic liquors in any form. This "odious and inquisitorial tyranny" is the work of the Prohibitionists. They denounced it once: they applaud it now. They will carry it into effect if the moderate men and women in Wellington will assist them. When, however, the moderate men and women of the city and suburbs realise what Prohibition and No-licenso mean under the present law, they will surely determine to strike out the bottom lines and prevent their bouses being searched for liquor, and prevent the establishment of "odious and inquisitorial tyranny, utterly foreign to the fundamental principles of British law." To paraphrase their own language, the Prohibitionists have become an intolerable nuisance, and it is about time good, decent-living, moderate men and women hoisted them upon their own petard.* VrCTORIA STUDENTS' PROHIBITION. LEAGUE. -%J£T ANTED, the Victoria Students' V v Prohibition League to recover the wines and other beverages stolen from the Chairman's cellar aforetime to lie remembered. Consistency thy name is whisky.*