Prohibition.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4763, 2 October 1893, Page 3

Prohibition.

TO THE EDITOB, Siß,—-The following letter, recently received by me (having been missent to New South Waleß), ia in reply to a letter enclosing letters which had appeared in our local papers criticising the effects of prohibition in America. Tbe writer, MajorGeneral Neal Dow, I had met with in England Eome yeais since. He is now upwards of eighty, and has been called the father of the Maine law. Maine, is one of the smallest eastern States, and was the first to adopt the practice of prohibition, forty-two years since. — I am, &C, J. PECKOVER. [enclosube.j Portland, Maine, U.S.A., July 22, 1893. Dear Sir, — I have received your note of June 2 and enclosures. Of course those who aro in favour of grog shops will lie about the results of prohibition, but the facts are these in Maine. In the State, taken as a whole, the volume of the liquor traffic is not one-twentieth part so large as it was before the law in 1851. We had then many distilleries, seven of which and two large breweries were in this city. Now there is not a distillery or brewery in the State, and has not been one in many years. At the same time we had many cargoes of West India rum every year; now, not Ofto cask, nor has been any in

many years. We save annually, directly and indirectly, twenty million dollars, that is, four million pounds, which under any form of license would be spent, lost and wasted in drink, as in the old rum time. In 1884, after more than thirty years of experience of the 'benefits of prohibition, our people voted it into tbe Constitution by a majority of three to one. Liquor is yet sold on the ely, and in small quantities, in some parts of the State ; but thia iB nothing compared with the free and open sale everywhere in the old time. In more than three-fourths of our State, having more than three-fourths of our population, the traffic is practically unknown, — Yours, &c., Neal Dow.