NO LICENSE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13730, 21 October 1908, Page 6

NO LICENSE.

RESULTS IN IXVERCARGII.L.

' A meeting wis held voder the auspices ol the Tmatu Xo License League in Trinity Hall last, evening, to hear three ronton from Invercargill describe the recalls of no-license in that citv. There a good attendance, though the hall was not'.' filled. The president of the Leagoe, Rev. A- E. Bust, presided, and introduced the deputation —*• Rev. A. Mitchell (Methodist minister)) Sir Wesney (illicitor>, and Sir Baxter (grocer))- Rev. T. Stinsoa also sat.on the platform. In opening the, meeting, Mr Hunt exp««ed regret that they coßld not get the theatre, Vnd that the IMeting clashed with t&at oftfaeir W«lej-an friends, biitneithci of than covld be pat off. Rev, 311 Baamber and Mr Olpfaert had asked him to mpologzK for their absence. Proceed 'ingj ilr Hunt add there nt a great conflict' of evidence as to the rusnha of no' Gwnsß where it had been tried, and tbey ■were wmwrtiiiHW in a difficulty in deciding which to believe. They were now to bear aope direct testimony from three rewdeiite of InvercargilL who had lived there under both conditions, who were to be fooked

upon u hononnible men, having bo monetary interest in the qncttiMi, who repre■ented different walks of life, and whose evidence could> be accepted as trust wort hv. .Bw. Mr Mitchell spoke first. He kmnfded hkhearers that next day the Britiah Empire would be celebrating Nelson'* great Yictory of Trafalgar a hundred years ago. He looked forward to the day a hundred years hence, and imagined \heir descendants celebrating a great victory to be won next 'month. Coming to his purpose, he assured the meeting that the people of Invttcargill would never go back on their vote for no license. The oppownta of no licence elsewhere epuing no pains or no misrepresentation* to .defame the results of the vote, and there was so much anger at this thatr people were found willing to come before the public to defend them. Among the tests of the beneficent effects of no license was the residential teat. He had lived in.' Auckland under license, and in much maligned Cloths. What he saw in Clutha, ' one of the cleanest little placre in the Dominion," caused him to throw himself heart and aoul into the no license movement. A drunken man was a curiosity then?, a subject of talk for days, and of wonder where be got the liquor. But on moving into Invercargill with his family ooe v of the firet men they saw was a drunken man. He asked a Clutha man, who had always opposed no license, if be wo«td give his casting vote, if be had it. to restore the licenses, and be replied certainly,- he would not. The Mayor of Invercargill had also been an opponent, and lie had green the some answer. His share of the night's duty was specially to deal with the social and moral 'results, and be would do this from hfc own experience.

He began, however, with a story told him by * well-known resident, of a husband «ad father's brutality when drank weekly, and the marked change in the condition of the family when the bars were clc-eed. After six months of domestic happiness and prosperity, the man got a good offer of work in Dnnedin, accepted it, and in a week was in the gutter, from which he had since been unable to raise himself. Mr Mitchell told stories of sereral former drunkards who had become reportable citizens in Invercargill «nce tie barn were closed. A minority there might be. and wwtfd get drink if they could. bat the majority were fond able |o ke»-p from it. For some time pact they had had bat one single case of drunkenness in Invercargill, from drink obtained there, and Hut. ' was at a wedding. He quoted Police Inspector Mitchell, that the public had t-iken kindly to no license; there was very little drunkennew in the street*, and be thought it a grand success. Before no lii<n>e, Invercargill was notorious for hootlluminn: but now. the elements of disorder had disappeared, and women were no longer afraid to gn out at night without an escort. A visitor from the north paraded the «treet» from seven to ten on a Saturday night looking for the hundreds of drunken men that tic had heard of, and 1»> • ould' not find or**, and when he asked where they were was told that he would not see one in three months. As a mink»Ur he lined to have derelict hard-up* coming to him for relief: and not one since no license was adopted. He spoke of <h« drinking habit* of the country people who came to town on market days. Ono of tbe country trains got the name of "the drunks train"; no decent woman dare travel by ; t. Order now prevailed in the town because the cause of disorder had been put a»ide. Dealing next with the testimony of the moderate drinkerw, be quoted a cnmfercial traveller, who b.id opposed the movement, but now said Ik: Thought his whole firm would give a block vot* for no license: because burners «.i» letter, and life rlentvr. Hut lie (Mr Mitchell) asked—-"What about the adverts ements in tbe Dunedin paper* "—"Rot: Rubbish! Lies! I'd lik«* to have live minutes with Mr Thompson." Ho denied that tbe young men were going to the •fogs through getting liquor on she sir : the majority were too manly to resort t<) underhand method*. He condemn.'*! i he shooting habit as one of the most mirhievous and idiotic cmloou that anv people had ever adopted. Mr Mitch-ll tommended to h*s study the Invercargill manifesto which has been well etrcnlated in Timarn. An agent of the liquor party b«»d been down t reins •" get 'up a (.uunter manifesto. bai lie couM , not get the signatures. The results h.itl

been so good in invercargill that the people were certain to adlieie to no license; and he assured theui that if Timaru tried it they too would udheie to it ever after, as the one real ava lablt remedy for *ome of the greatest evilo of society. For their own sake, the nation's sake, and for Uod s sake, they should strike out the top line, and make the whole population, as «> that ot invercargill, a bappy and piuspeious pu>ple. (Applause.) \ir Wesney fol!owcd» He drevtr attention to the fact that M the other side" did not take any part in the plaiiorm contest, and then proceeded to coutiant the former state oi Tnvercaigill with its present state. Formerly, wiui a population of 13,000, they had 34 hotels in the electorate. These were reduceu by tliiee 'tag&i to 16, the number at tlie last poll, rbtse reductions, be consideted, had Ixeii .he stepping-stones U> final success, die vote for no license gTowing with eac.'i i polL This was perhaps partly due to each rcauiuon tukiug u number of j>eoplt out of the tighting line landlords, licensees, frienaa and - bervan'-s. ne spoke of the value of large popular meetings, and described one they had had in Invercargill, a unique sort of meeting arranged by the Christian Endeavourers' I who got men to speak in favour of no-license. ~ That meeting won the fight :in Invercargill. Why should. not the business people of Timaru do likewise! (Applause.) He proceeded to answer some of the "fairy tales" that were told would; happen—That the place would go down, property values sink, the town become a decaying village. Such cries were likely to frighten timid owners of property, but the. actual result of no license had been that values of property had risen £140,000, the largest increase in m> one year, and next year by £40,0jD.Soroe people had felt that it wcu kl be unfair to rob the owner of an ho:<l of his property in it as an hotel. Mr Whitney described the .cases of several L< tel.-, to show that the owners had really been benefited, and to ridicule Mr Thompson's comments on these very catjes. Taking the 16 hotels together they were now more highly valued than before no license. They were told that the rates must be increased; as a matter of fact they hod been reduced. A common objection was that if they dosed the bars the travelling public would not be so well catered for. That had been officially inquired' into and disproved. Mr Wesney next dealt with the art>ertion that under no license more liquor would be drunk. That that was absurd was proved by the test that there was less drunkenness in the town. He went into the statistics of this matter wi'.h some minuteness. The sales of beer in the electorate was proved by official figures to have been reduced by half, and the home consumption wan little more than one-third of the sales, the rest going out to other electorates. As to imported liquor, if the Customs duties and beer

excise had increased at the same rati as at Donedin, the increase would hare been £9250 for the year; but the total showed a decrease of £5224—a difference of £12,500. The consumption of beer in the electorate, still seemed large in the number of gallons for the year, but it would only amount to half a pint a day for all those who voted for continuance. Mr Baxter, grocer, third speaker, >aid he was rather a worker than a speaker at home. He began with a little chaff at the one Biblical argument- for the liquor trade—"Timothy's «omach." He remarked that the liquor trade w/«re taking very great interest in the moral welfare of the young men of Inrtrcargill now, on account of the demoralisation they were MiHVriiig through the wiikiH k<-g trade. They never showed any rtich in tere-»t in theni when ihrr- na» a mii'-h larger tradv, in larp-r ca*ks. lii\cr«-ar gill was no better. ;, "d "" «'oix-. than other towns, under liwnse. Ho did nut like to. paint his own inwu 1 il l >■ k. but lit* gave a few instanc* of r-lioi king result* of drunkenne»r> in talitKH and deaths. Mr ISaxto- followed tlie other .-jx-aken-. and even >nrpassed them, in the coiidi-mtialion of Rev. \V. Thompson—tin.- oik- clergyman of tli--1200 or 1300 in Xeiv Zealand who «ato be found publicly advocating tlk- liquor tni«k. Turning to the lesnlt* ol im liwiife in Invcrcargill. lm said bu» : iie» was. inurli f-omid-r. mid c*pe<?ially good 111 certain liiKs—drajien-, ironmongers, j-Mil-lets, and ryelv shops. The building Hade wa» ie|xirt<-d by ihc- (iov. rnmeril Labour agent- to Ixr in eiiclh-Di condition. und all olh« r trad, w-ie i.-ported to be liti-y too. Huring (lit two yam of no Iti- c n»e thr *arings bank* dri*rits wvre £12.000 motv in the last two years than Ixfore. He adm'tted that tbo tx: of gallon* jht head of all kiuds of liquor in the <i*>ttict seemed a good deal, but the aw lage for the whole lountiy nit lCj g:il lons. and if tin- whole of the population was as abstemious as Invcrcargill, lhdrink bill would go down by more ih.ui two nrflii'in*. The hcfpital t«:uiu« shoM.-d a decrease of 70 per i - lit - ill delirium tremeii* u*f\ .md applu-atioim for rbar table aid fell from 113 t.. 87 the tir*t y-ir. Mr It.i\t« r mm l-.i-i,.! j,y quoting tli- larger contribution* mad- for church and lu~pit.il ihiioom". and bv all io voti- foj no luetic on luor.ii. it-ligiou* and iomiiurci.il ground*. Th- <-luiirn;in invited que*Uoti*. .md 1«forr any weir offered a man ro*»- in the audience and gar.- a *keuh of his family hi»tcny ■ .» «.ot one. He <on>lud'd nv ruyini: that «ii.it h- had li-.ird had dJ term ned him to give „|, modi-rat, dnnl. inc. and ..ri m U„ 1, ,ii• iiki r>t; did riot. iApplause.i The following 'juration*. w»rv ii.uMci up

together in writing, anil Mr Wesney gave the replies:— As you have come I" leU tir. the trulli about Invercargill, you will be able to leU us if the following is a fake of a true account of what occurred on that occa-sion:—-"The Dunedin Star of May Win 'l9oß| gave die follow ing graph e umuint of one >jf those orgit-s l;y youths, some of them under tliu age that the Licensing Ait allows a publicJtn to supply with intoxicating liquor: but in a no licence district youths can d'.ink with impunity: A party of young men were interrupted by the tsoi'.ce on Saturday night as they were Holding a "keg spree" in the Queens Paik. The outcome vf -tlite matter was that two of the'U appealed at the Police Court* yersttrday. Une of tlieni was convicted of assaulting the police: anil sentenced to two months* imprisonment.-lie other, for drunkenness, wi® lined 10s, ana for assaulting the police a tine of £5 was iinimed, in default one month's imprisonlnent. The presiding justice remarked that the custom of drinking in tlie reterves was becoming a very serious matter in Invercargill;. so rnucli so that walking in tlie parte late at night was unsiile. 4?ergttant Matheson tsaid the keg business was assuming serious dimensions; iind complaints about the behaviour of the hoodlums who formed keg parties in the Park, on U'ednesdays, txuurdays. and Sundays, were very "frequent." Air Wesney repled that lie could not say whether the statement was correct or not; he had not read it befoic. But presuming that it was eotrect, tlie incident took place, not in consequence of no license m invercargill, but in consequence of license in the adjoining electorate of Awarua. 'lhe young men could not have got tue beer Jn Invercargill. Is temperance by compulsion preferable to temperance' by moral buasion? —The chairman ruled this out of order. ' The meeting was not held to di«:u>i> the , general question, but only the ehLcto of uo license in Invercargill. Can you tell us what are the evils of which the correspondent "Xo License"' complains in the following extract from the "Otago Daily Times" of Wednesday, September &Jrd, 19C8 Litvu e wiiies to tay he its pleaned that 'Xo License * has the honesly (o admit that the evils which now exist in Inveicargill were not there when that city was under tlie contiol ot the licensed bar. Theie can be little doubt that liquor uiidir control is be:tir than liquor uncontrolled. That .the evils which 'So License." tei b of are alive and flourishing is pi own by tJie unimpeachable l'arliameiitaiy letuiit, which show that no less than 1'<43,952 gallons of liquor we le delivered in Invercaigill since no license was enforced. Truly, this is an enormoufa consumption for a pooplc who voted out the liquor b..i>."—Mr WVsney <s:iid this had been replied to by his previous leinarks on Ihe i educed * consumption. Can you give u»> an approximate idea of the quantity of liquor eonMinied in Invercargill during the no license p-riod. of which there is lio iccord kept V—Mr Wesnvy said he did not undeirtand tin question. Perhaps the questioner would explain it. Mr if. McLeod 6aid it tpoke for itself; it was plain Knglish. Mr Wesney: Does the questioner mean to «ay that quantities of liquor come into Invercargill that do not pass through the proj>er channels? Mr McLeod : Just «o. ill* Wetney explained that all liquor coming into the electorate ifi required to be notified, and a return to tlie police every u\ek. If tlie. questioner had any evidence that liquor was brought in and not notified, be (Mr W.«iev) would be glad to receive it, and enquire into it. and if it was true be would Kt him know. Mr Howard moved a resolution suggested by the chairman, that the met ting approved of the facts disolr r> -d. and urged tlie to strike out the top line only, and this was? carried with one di--sentient". A vote of thanks to the deputation closed the meeting at 10.30 p.m. •