THE TEMPERANCE SENTIMENT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 440, 24 February 1909, Page 9

THE TEMPERANCE SENTIMENT.

■;.;Sir,—There has :beeri a Bechabite Conven- • tion at Mastorton,. and. one gentleman put a; proposition to the meeting; referring : to "tho spread of tho temperance sentiment," Tins ;must surely be a numonst. Ayouid ho look up the records ,ana. endeavour to. realise the enormous. increase in liquor consumption:' in recent years he would it might do him 'good, because if he isn't totally olmdod by bias he/ would ; sieyer again make a . reference' which, in the faoeiof. the ligures, is so utterly absurd. Of course we all know 5 resolutions of this kind:are spread .broadcast over, the Dominion, and may serve - to '.deceive some electors. However, as most of us are now well aware; the change in the system of. liquor consumption : brought about by No-License simply means... more drinking, and that thousands of electors vote ; for it "for the, one simple .reason that >they.; know it means, cheaper beer and heaps'more of it for the same, money. / Isn't it about - high time this; nonsense! about : the spread of tno temperance: sentiment; of- which not a shadow, exists, should bo buried for good ? In no . country throughout the world is there a law which' has been reduced/ to such a pure absurdity, or which has failed so completely in its object, as the ■ present licensing', law in this Dominion, and yet we have a ! Prime ■Minister and a. Government so weak and so sptneless : that they make no effort to wipe ■it out boldly and introduce legislation' which will promote, temperance. This, at the bid of a few noisy fanatics who, like the three tailors of Tcoley Street, referring to themselves, commenced their petition. "We the people."—l am, etc., ABSTAINER. : .'February. 11, 1909.