LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN KING COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 191, 13 August 1900, Page 2

LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN KING COUNTRY.

TO THE EDITOIt, Sib,—l consider the Rev. Mr. Serpen's logic, even if his statistics are correct—which I deny —is veryfaulty, as the intrinsic value of the measures of a system are not impaired either by mismanagement or neglect, As there is undeniable evidence that sly grogselling, with its attendants—vile liquor and deceit—is rife in thejrohibited district of the King Country, there is no reason for the outcry against the liquor traffic under the present supervision, such as it is, by the parties opposed to State control. Surely, Mr. Editor, if the principle of private profit was eliminated, excess and irregularities could be safeguarded against much more effectively than with self-interest as a mighty temptation to push the trade to the utmost, even to the evasion' of the law, which is done all over the (colony, as cases in the Magistrate's Courts abundantly prove. Self-interest lon the one hand, and misguided zeal and bigotry on the other, may delay the j time when the State will sell alcoholic ! liquors, pure and unadulterated, at a fair price and in limited quantities. As the ropes are pulled at .present it is simply a case of being between the j devil and the deep sea.—l am, etc., Robert Gleg'g.