TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 20, 23 June 1911, Page 4

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

(This column is the property of the Waikato No-License League, and we are in no way responsible for the opinions expressed. — Ed. W. P.)

STRIKING TESTIMONIES TO VALUE OF NO-LICENSE.

INVERCARGILL.

Mr Froggatt (ex-Mayor), pf Invercargill. testified to his knowledge of the great improvements in every direction since No-license came into operation. There had been especially a great advance in building, and a great demand for dwellinghouses and business premises. He gave individual instances of benefit coming under his own notice as a Justice of the Peace. MATAURA. ONLY ONE DRUNK SEEN IN SIX YEARS. . GOOD ACCOMMODATION. Mr J. T. Bull, who has resided in Mataura for six years, said that he had only seen one drunken person under arrest in the Mataura borough. Hotel accommodation was fully as good if not better than in license days. There was no evidence of home drinking over what existed in license days. There was no evidence of home drinking over what existed in license days. The Gore court records showed a very great decrease in drunkenness, comparing the figures of the last five years of license and the first five years of no-license. Sly grog:selling was being effectively dealt with by the police.

i CLUTHA. AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS' TRIAL.

Speaking of Clutha, the Rev. J. A. Hosking testified to the growth of the nolicense sentiment as manifested in the steady and continuous growth of the vote. Balclutha was a complete refutation of the assertion that business was detrimentally affected by no-license.

OAMARU. CRIME REDUCED TO A VANISHING POINT.

The Rev. W. J, Williams. Oamaru, said the crime record had been reduced practically to a nullity. The moral tone had been greatly improved, and business had not been injuriously affected. Mr Williams admitted that local no-license had not been so perfectly successful as to be looked upon as the final solution of the liquor problem.

Mr G. B. Nicholls added some very valuable testimony from the sergeant of police at Oamaru. Compared with Palmerston North, his previous station, from a police point of view no-license was in every way preferable. The testimony of four Oamaru doctors was distinctly against the assertion that no-license led to increased drinking of intoxicants in the home of the people. BRUCE.

Mr P. Mac Skimming spoke of the Bruce electorate, having been a resident there for the past thirty years. Speaking of Stirling, where a hotel had been, there had been no evidence whatever of sly grog-selling. At Kaitangata sly grog-selling was a diminishing quantity, as was also the keg system. At Milton, where four hotels had formerly existed since the locker system had ended there was little or no evidence of sly grog-selling. At Lawrence Gabriel's Gully jubilee was recently celebrated, and there was no evidence whatever of drunkenness.