GET THIS ON YOUR MIND

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6297, 2 November 1925, Page 5

GET THIS ON YOUR MIND

REMEMBER AT THE POLLING BOOTH It was decided the other day, in a Federal Court of the U.S.A., that a Prohibition officer may seize baggage and examine it, or may enter a house and search it, WITHOUT A WAFRANT. Needless to say, the New Zealand Prohibition Party has not announced this decision. It would far rather that the electors knew nothing about it; it queers their pitch—gives the lie to their vapourings. They know that the law they are trying to force upon this Dominion is modeled on the American law, they know that it is just as severe, more narrow, and more far-reaching than the American law; they know that it will operate just as the American law is operating—to the destruction of pergonal liberty, to the increase of tcrime and general lawlessness. If : it were not a serious and pathetic situation one could laugh at it. The •poor, .Short-Sighted meddler in other people’s affairs would be happy when an officer broke into a man’s home or opened a man’s suitcase and found a bottle of brandy. He would feel that the glorious result justifies the enormity of the method. > Personal liberty is a matter of transcendental importance. The security of Government, existence iof civilisation depends upon its maintenance. ' Hold fast to liberty/' 1