NO-LICENSE ABSURDITIES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 550, 3 July 1909, Page 3

NO-LICENSE ABSURDITIES.

■ Sir,—-I vwonder how long: the educated aiid intelligent.of this country, are going to allow themselves to be dominated, by .; intolerant fanatics and faddists? It has been shown that per head of the.population the drink bill of New Zealand has increased, notwithstanding the .efforts of the so-called temperance, peoplej and surely that fact should constrain to thought and to.action. To-day there is'moro drink to bo'found in Masterton tlian ever the'ro was at. any .'period of: its history, and when that drink I)as been consumed all who desire more .have only to go a few r mi!es to Bring in a fresh supply. In the , meantime valuable properties have been practically destroyed, good citizens have been turned out of their homes to endeavour, late in life, to find their way into some kind of new business of ■ which" they never had any experience, whilst a number—a hundred or so —have found themselves in the street to swell tho ranks of the unemployed. Will , yon ho'so good as to.toll the people of this Dominion wherein is the gain of all.this? .The, practical re-' alt. so fa-rae jSo-lioeate has.gone,' oi tiie

policy of the so-called temperance people has been to drivo to drinking in parlours and bedrooms, the introduction of drink into the homo; and the turning of honest, upright men and women into a lot of surreptitious sneaks and back-door swillers. Because John Smith; up tho street there; squanders liis - money, gets drunk, comes home in, a beastly .state, and thrashes Ims wife—admittedly a most, deplorable condition of things—is that any j-ea- • son why hundreds of good citizens who. have never -dono any, wronc should be punished by deprivation? Two-thirds of tho people of Masterton,' independent of tho late hotel-', keepers and their employees, are being punished' Upon, tho presumption that amongst them are a few'drunks. The thing iemon-, strous: such a condition of affairs/indeed; as no high-spirited people could he expected te submit to. Sirrely it ie time the conmibnsenso people of Now Zealand were up. and doing, determined onoo for allto put a stop 7 to the ridiculous .performances' now going forward under the shadow of a perfectly ab7 surd law.—lam, ete.,' / . T '■ ' "■"■■ . '.»,-■ JASON. 7 Julyl. ...... ')■..'■'■:..- ■:/ ;/