THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9403, 1 April 1898, Page 2

THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC AND OLD AGE PENSIONS.

■ 4 1 1 TO THE EDITOR. ' Sm,— Your correspondent " XX " makea a proposition -011 this subject which, at first sight, seems a Tory sensible one. The liquor traffic enjoys a fat monopoly, the,, profits of whioh are drawn from the earnings of the very class who, in old age, are left homeless and destitute through its - • means ; and what niore natural than that it thould be saddled with the maintenance of those who, in youth, have supported it, ana from whom it has profited so hand- " somely? But the proposition, fair aB it Beems, is utterly wrong in prinoiple. Your correspondent seems to be under the impression that the agitation has arisen from the law-breaking propensities of the liquor' traffickers. That is not so. That the trade is characterised by a habitual contempt of law, nobody ia likely to deny ; hut even if it were proved to a_deraonetration that it is the most law-respecting and' order-loving of commercial institutions.the - cause of the Prohibition agitation would ' BtnVexist ; nor will that agitation be dis- ■ continued as long as one 'dram-shop re mains in the colony. Every such shop is a centre for the dissemination of intoxicating drinks; such drinks intoxicate, and intoxication is only ruin spelled the long way-r-ruin to health, ruin to wealth, ruin ' to Home and all itsicomforts, and ruin.to immortal well-being. And it makes no difference whether the liquor whioli pro-> duees these effects be sqld from a Government store or across the bar. of a private owner's hotel. It is against the ■ cause of these effects that Prohibition wages war, not against any trifling breaches of the law on the part of the drink-sellers. The arrangement which imposes on the liquor traffic the duty of supplying a large qnm - to the public revenues is one whioh has "" given that traffic an ertormous 'hold 'on ■' I the minds of influential men 'throughout " ! the colony. These naturally ask if all license fees are to be discontinued how are our local revenues to he replenished ? And they jump .to -the conclusion thab the only course would be an increase of taxation. It was probably reasoning of this kind which kept many people who have [ no love or sympathy for the liquor traffic from voting for prohibition 15 months . ago. And if a further duty were imposed on the trade of providing revenue f or-old age pensions I. feel -certain that it wonld mean the postponement of Prohibition if 6r the largest part of a century. On these grounds all who look forward to seeing the colony purged of the drink ourse, must object to a proposal to grant the traffio such a renewed lease of life as would be involved in imposing on it the duty of providing for our aged poor. — I am, etc., J. Aitken.