PROHIBITION WITH A VENGEANCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1635, 13 August 1887, Page 3

PROHIBITION WITH A VENGEANCE.

Tho temperance faction of Maine ire foe. Ing the anti-llqror laws m that State witn extreme vigor. They are now prosecuting farmer* for telling the prodncts of tbe?B AFcbarda m the I'lape of a cider. On Mtf 21*t, Frank Boy n ton, an old eolc'ier, was ■ummond to Rive evidence In this regard •gamtt a farmer friend, and rather tban do so he quietly drowned himself m a •hallow pool. The present Rarotongan mhslonary, Mr Butchlaon, who fcucceeded that very queer customer Watt Gill, ftbotit whom some of the richest missionary yarns of the South Pacific mi^ht be xecordad, adopted much the same policy m the three-queened isle. Finding that though grog wu prohibited, yet the natives still managed to get intoxicated by meini of orange juice, be called a meeting of church members and ordered the immediate extirpation of all orange J tree* throughout the isltnd. The island , Is one T«Bt orange grove, and the fruit it one of the great staple products of trie •ouotry, asHrell as an important Item of the dietary of the inhabitants. Some of fall more rabid anppO'ters carried out h la decree, bat the sense of the majority prevailed, and Mr Hutohlnson was made to reconsider his rash ganeralizttlon. Oranges still flourish m Parotonga.