A SUGGESTION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 163, 15 August 1914, Page 8

A SUGGESTION.

To the Editor of THE SUN. Sir, —Every true patriot is now anxious to lie]]) the Empire in the present crisis. Money is required in Mew Zealand to equip our boys who are going to the war. May I offer a suggestion which may be of use: It is that the liquor shops close down until the war is over. The wisdom of this step will be readily perceived when we remember the excellent results obtained by the closing of the bars in Auckland during the recent strike. Many of your readers will recall t-ad and sorry scenes of drunkenness and disorder during the late Boej War. We know how money, urgently needed for bread and clothing, found its way into the tills of the liquor traffic. No one can deny that the closing of the bars would result in less poverty and disorder, and enable us to face more calmly the present crisis.. Everyone knows that the liquor business is a larger cause of death, disease, and degeneracy than war, with all its horrors. It is, moreover, a heavy drain 011 the public purse, as witness the profits of tlie business in this and older countries. Now that the soldiers of the armies of Russia and Germany have the liquor ration prohibited on the grounds of health and efficiency, it is surely not too much to expect patriotic citizens to do without liquor. I hope the above will meet with the approval of the Licensed Victuallers' Association, as also the Prohibition Party. —I am, etc., ' TRUE PATRIOT-.