GERALDINE HOTELS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13658, 29 July 1908, Page 3

GERALDINE HOTELS.

To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald." Sir,—Just' a final word. Your correspondent, like the shifty attorney, keeps continually shifting his ground and finally finding he has no case, resolves to abuse the other side. The utter nonsense and absurdity of his letter calls for no reply. "Viator" wrote his first epistle as one of the travelling public, whereas he is a resident, of Geraldine, and possibly greatly in need, of assistance of the reforms I strongly advocate. He also made rash and reckless charges against public officers of which he is quite unable to produce the slightest evidence or proof. His second epistle consisted of a vain attempt to justify the misleading statements of the fhst, padded by ridiculous fables which no person of average intelligence could swallow. Not a single one of my statements • has been denied or refuted, as they are of common knowledge, and go to prove that the trade, as carried on in the Geraldine district, is of a disgraceful and disreputable nature, and calls for the only effective remedy—its absolute abolition. When a trade originally promoted and carried on by lawful authority for the purpose of supplying the necessary refreshments and accommodation of residents or the public generally, degenerates into a grog shop system, earning wealth by the degradation, demoralisation, poverty, and destitution of its victims; by penalising all those j who are by nature not inclined,to become its victims, then the sooner its contaminat-. ing influences are removed the better it | will be for the whole of the people and district. The remedy is in the j>eople's own hands, and I sincerely trust that so far as our own district is concerned we are on the eve of either abolition or some vigourous measure of radical reform. The last epistle has wandered from the subject in question, and is simply a sarcastic attack personally upon myself. It is ineffective, as.l ,still. retain the courage to state my convictions openly and fairly, and shall not hesitate to advocate the abatement of an intolerable evil, and, if possible, the prosperity and progress of i the people and consequent advancement of I cur district.—l am, etc., I G. J. WBEATHALL.