A FOUL CROP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 671, 15 January 1903, Page 23

A FOUL CROP.

WHAT PROHIBITION BREEDS.

Tn the article in the Melbourne “Argils” from which we quoted in our last week’s leading article, Mr Deegan eays According to the police court records in Balclutha there were 79 prosecutions for tsly-grog selling within three and a half years after the adoption of 'no license.’ Out of the seventy-nine cases there were ©Sly twenty-three convictions, fifty-six tefting dismissed or withdrawn for lack of conclusive evidence. Prosecutions still Occur,' but they are less frequent; the liquor sellers are discreet, they 'know their customers,and strangers are served only on the guarantee of recognised clients. That ®ly-grog selling and perjury go together is ft fact beyond doubt. This .is bow Mr ’ Hawkins, P.M., expresses himself on the ■Object :—“ The repressive measures and the penal enforcement of them have led to an open defiance of law and to disregard Of truth in the magistrate’s court, the ®vil( of which I cannot sufficiently dwell on and deplore. There is hardly a case which has come before me in which the defendant has pleaded “Not Guilty,” in which, 'in my opinion, there •has not been lying in the witness-box. In some cases it hasi been most deliberate. In all, it seems to me that no odium attaches to it in the mind of the ordinary public and resort to any practice is deemed justifiable to defeat what is considered an unfair attempt to deprive the public of a right. The lying has become systematised; t the points to be protected are getting clearly defined ; the difficulties of prosecution are increasing. Hardly a case is heard in which the prosecution has not suggested that the witnesses have been tampered with—a suggestion which I cannot deny appears to be well founded.”