The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11603, 18 August 1899, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY.

FRIDAY, AUGUST IP, 1699. ♦ While Miss Kirk is to be complimented upon the studied courtesy of her public addre33cs, and the careful avoidance, so rare among Prohibition advocates, of offensive nersonalities, as much caDnot te said of the figures she brings forward in support of her contention that Prohibition would not affect tho revenue. The total expenditure on prisons is set down at £18,677, eighty per ojnt. of which, it is claimed, is due to liquor. Now, in the first place, this is an altogether unwarrantable assumption, based, we suppose, upon a telegram supposed to have been sent by the Wellington gaoler, and confirm i& by a remark made by Mr Justice Hawkins, at the Old Bailey, London, to the effect that some 80 per cent, of the prisoners brought before bim owed tbeir position more or less to drink. Th*e Wellington gaoler's statement must be taken for what it is worth ; there are no means of verifying or controverting it effectually, since it was made over five years ago, and was only a matter of opiuion then. It h, however, distinctly unfair, and a libel upon this colony to place even our prison records upon the same plane w'th those of tho Old Bailey, the central criminal ccort of London, where more crime is exposed in a week perhaps than in the whole of New Zealand in a year. As a comparison with tho Wellington gaoler's estimate we might bring forwaid the number of convictions for drunkenness in the distiict over which the New Plymouth Magistrate's Court has jurisdiction. In 1889 there were 16 convictions of 18 persons ; 1890, 16 convictions of 13 persons ; 1891, 30 convictions of 23 persons ; 1892, 29 convictions of 2i persons ; 1893, 33 convictions of 28 persons ; 1894, 40 convictions of 84s persons ; 1895, 45 convictions of 84 persons ; 1896, 35 convictions of 82 persons ; 1897, 42 convictions of 39 persons ; 1898, 31 convictions of 27 persons ; 1899 t<|> July 20th, 8 convictions. These records cover a population of some 15,000 or 20,000 peoplp, so that tho proportion of convictions for drunkenness in this distiict varies from 1 to 2 per 1000 inhabitants. In faco of this, the assertion that 80 per cent, of expenditure on prison 3 is due to liquor can only bo! characterised as a gross exaggeration, and the same remarks must be applied to the polico expenditure. Nor do wo believo that 80 per cent, of the expenditure upon charitable aid or industrial schools enn be so apportioned, though possibly the percenago is greater than in tho case of prisons and police. But the most outrageous exaggeration is in respect to tho expenditure upon hospitals, 60 per cent, of which, Miss Kirk, claims, is duo to liquor. If we may take tho New Ply mouth hospital as a fair example, we giy with every confidence that, instead of GO percent., not 6 per cent., no, nor half that, of the cases treated can in any way be ascribed to liquor, and we are astonished at Miss Kirk making such an absolutely groundless assertion, and such a cruel aspersion on the characters of those whose misfortuno it is to have to become inmates of the hospital. With respect to lunatic asylums, wo have official records to show that less than 9 per cent., and not 83 J- per cent, as Miss Kirk stated, of tho cases of lunacy were duo to intemperance. What would Miss Kirk and other Prohibitionists Bay if to thtf aisertion that 33 J , per cent, of lunatics owed their condition to liquor it was retorted tbat tho other 66§ per cent. w°ro diiven out of thoir minds by total abstinence? One statement is as true — or as false — as the other. Altogether Miss Kirk calculates tknt Prohibition would effect a saving of over £250,000 annually under tho heado mentioned. Not only are her figures grossly overstated, but sho appetrs to make no allowance for the extra police supervision which wonld be required to cope with sly-grog selling and illicit distillation ; nor of the const-guard servico it would be necessary to establish to prevent smuggling ; for there 1b not a shadow of a doubt but these unlawful > methods would bo resorted to on a large_scalo

if colonial prohibition became law. We j suppose absolute prohibition has never i been tried outside of a gaol ; wherevei i*i is ostensibly in force there are ample means for those who need alcohol to oblain it more or less surreptitiously. Take Clutlia ; no one who wants liquoi need go without, if he can afford to import it in bulk, and people of this class probably drink as much as ever they did. The class who cannot afbrd to obtain it, in bulk, and the class who furnish the convicted drunkards have left the district for others where they can indulge without so much restriction. This is the true cause of the decrease in the recorded convictions for drunkennes? and other offences arising therefrom in the Clutba district. The " hard cases,' of whom there are more or less to be found in every community, have migrated, pursue them with prohibitory laws and they will again move on, till at last- they will furnish customers for the aly-grog shanties and illicit distilleries which invariably take the place of the licensed houses. To come back, however, to Miss Kirk's statistics. She confesses to a net balance of £307,066 to be made up if liquor be abolished, and she suggests increasing the consumption of coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, rice, treacle, candles, tobacco, drapery, boots, shoes, and carpets by Gfty per cent. Well, we really cannot believe that the people of this colony would know what to do with such an increased quantity of these things, sugar, for instance ; we already consume an average of about 1001 b per head each annually, including what is used by Irewers ; make it ?SOlb, and divide what tho brewers now use among ua as well, aud we should have to live on sugar. Tobacco again; surely we spend enough as a people upon that fragrant weed without having to smoke half as much again, or peihaps the ladies who are of Miss Kirk's way of thinking will take their share. Drapery, boots and shoes already take a sufficiently large proportion of a family man's income without being increased by fifty per cent An outfit of little boots for a large family three times a year instead of twice i 3 a serious matter. Then Miss Kirk says that to provide this additional £330,080 of revenue it would only require the expenditure by the people of £6G8,049. Surely her figures are at fault, for ou;: sugar and tea imports alone came to £551,757 in 1897, and our tobacco imports to £164,889, and if to these we add doty we find Ihe cost, duty paid, of these three items alone was £], 251,489 ; an increase of fifty per cent, on these means £025,744., to say nothing of the dealers' profit, which has to be added. Mies Kirk's finance would break down lamentably, and she would, we fear, havo to fa'l back upon doubling the land tax to make good the revenue lost through Prohibition.

Mr Bainbridge desire 3 U3 to state that he will reply tonight to Mr McAUum'a letter in the Herald Jast evening. Captain Edwin wired this afternoon: — Moderate to strong south to east and norih-east winds; glass rise; low tiJea. . The Hon. Secretary of the Recreation Grounds acknowledges a donation of £1 from Mr Eastwood. An advertisement of interest, from Mr Whitaker, of the Household Stores, will be found in another column. It is probable that wireless telegraphy will be U3ed to establish communication with Stewart Island. It is expected that the whole of the timber in the Eketahana County will be cat out within the next five years. It is estimated that for the last two and a half years new buildings have been going up in Wanganui at the rate of £1000 per week. A line of 1268 eheepEkins was sold in Sydney the week before last for 9d per lb, the highest recorded price ever obtained ia tho Fydney market. A typographical error crept into Mr D. McAllum's letter ia Thursdaj's issue: "C.W. and J K." Bhould hive read "0 , W., and J. X."— the three deceased brothers of Mr K. M. Bainbridge, M P. The Australian shipments of butter to England for the season 1898 OOaggregattd 20,552,0001b8, averaging lid Jb. Dmuh butter (which is all pasteurised, being compulsory under the law) realised about Id per lb more than Australian. The Timaru Harbour Board has offered £800 for tha 20 ton crane at the Napier harbour works. This crane coat the Board £1500, but with alterations £2000 It has been resolved to offer £900 for it as it stands, without shipping charges. Henry Walton Phillips, of Westport, has a petition before the House praying that he may be rewarded for having been the inaugurator of gold dredging on tho Molyneux River. He states tbat,in company with one Benjimin Knight, he commenced dredgiug in 1864, at great expeD»3 to himself. A letter was received to-day (Friday) by His Worship the Mayor from Mr 11. J. H. Blow, Undersecretary for Public Works, in reply to a letter dated the 11th inst , respecting tho Town Clock and Tower, and stating that it is proposed to make provision for the work on this year's Public Works Estimates. Up-country journals in Otago are vio ing with each other as to which can secu-o the tallest story connected with tho recent frost. The Lake County Press alleges that at Alexandra a horse was firmly embedded in tbo ice while trying to get a diiak, having become a fixture in the pool till released the following morning. Mr J. J. RRson, reprccnting Mr M B. Curtis' Afro-American Minstrel Comptny, arrived in New Plymouth this morning to make arrangements for tho appearance of tbe company on Tuesday and Wednesday next. The minstrels have just completed a phenomenally successful season in Syduey, aud are at present playing to crowded houses ia Auckland. Dr. Hutcbiiison will deliver a lecture in the schoolroom of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, to-iinnow Friday evening, 18th iuat., con:,n. uoiug at 8 o'clock. Subject : " Tho Physiology of Manhood." The lecture will be for men. Young men and lads over fourteen specially in* vited to be present. Admission free. 0