LIQUOR IN KING COUNTRY.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17221, 3 October 1927, Page 8

LIQUOR IN KING COUNTRY.

\ (To the Editor.) Sir, —Mr Hobbs, in his letter to your paper of the 26th inst., intimated that he would answer my previous letter if I would disclose my name, but in the same letter he proceeds to endeavour to do so. I was pleased to note that Mr Hobbs has at least visited Te Kuiti on two occasions, and that he “might even arrange to visit thte King Country with myself later to investigate things.” This is not necessary from my standpoint, as my residence in the King Country extends to close on twenty years. In my previous letters to your paper I have nailed myself to the pact and its subsequent proclamation, and do not intend to deviate from that issue, and if Mr Hobbs will answer the following questions (radiating from the pact and proclamation) no doubt readers will gain something from the correspondence columns: —

(1) Has the proclamation accomplished the purpose it aimed to secure?

(2) Has the proclamation been a dead letter since its inception? (3) Are the natives in the King "Country inferior to the natives in other portions of the Dominion and require special treatment? (4) Was the proclamation enacted by a confirmed and pronounced prohibitionist? (5) Was the "other side" view given even a passing consideration, and future citizens of the King Country taken into thought? (6) Are the citizens of the King Country to be denied a right that every other portion of the Dominion possesses? (7) Will my prohibition friends extend this right to King Countryites ami let them decide through the ballot"/ box? My desire in entering into the controversy is to awaken public interest in what I contend is an absolute fiasco —i.e., prohibition by proclamation; I regret, that I cannot, even to oblige Mr Ilobbs, disclose my name, but I can assure Mr Ilobbs that I have satisfied Mr Edilor of my bona fides, and that my twenty years in. the King Country under prohibition by proclamation convinces me that liquor under licensed control would considerably improve, the conditions now governing the King Country as far as liquor is concerned. —I am, etc., KING COUNTRYITE.