NO-LICENSE NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 828, 28 May 1910, Page 14

NO-LICENSE NOTES.

BY ARRANGEMENT.

The annual Dominion No-Licenso Convention, to be opened in Wellington on Juno 22, is expected to be not only the largest but the most representative and important ever hold in New Zea- !_• land.' Among leading prohibitionists who are coming will be Mr. Wesley Spragg, president of the Alliance, ' Messrs. T. E. Taylor (Christchurch), ■'• L. M. Isitt, and Mrs. Cole, president W.C.T.TJ. It is estimated that over two hundred delegates will answer to the roll call. From the fact that all of theso pay their own expenses, besides losing time journeying to and from .Wellington, it does-not look as if the interest in No-License matters is on the wane. In addition.to the purely business sittings of the convention, two mass meetings aro to bo held in the !.' Town Hall, among the speakers being the Rev. Dr. Henry, Messrs. T. E. Taylor, M.P., and L. M. Isitt. Among the notes from the Masterton Special correspondent of The Dominion which were published on Tuesday, May - 17, appeared the following:—"Almost Crimeless Town.—The absence of crime in Masterton is a subject of daily comment among old residents. The police report that there is 'nothing moving' on the ordinary criminal side. iWhethcr this is a result of No-License, the special missions of religious revivalists, or tho pi ogress of education,. is, of course, a matter of opinion. : Tlkt fact,remains that the local police officers seem to- experience the greatest difficulty in 'killing time.' " As a good deal - of the ordinary-policeman's time is I taken up in keeping the "drunks" in order, prohibitionists naturally contend that No-License, which has been the rule in Masterton since last June, has been

j a powerful factor in bringing about •' this happy result. The official statistics for drunkenness during the first six ('weeks under No-License when compared with the corresponding period under License are:—Convictions for drunkeiii ness, six months under License, 140 ; f . . cases; six months under No-License, 19 cases; or a reduction of 86 per cent. ■ i As the, result of the efforts of the W.C.T.U., it is estimated that about ; ' i 30,000,000 children of school age are under temperance education to-day in the United States of America. Mr. R. .A. Wright, M.P., visited Foxton on a recent Saturday evening and delivered an open-air address on ' the Np-Licenso question. His remarks ■ ' were both practical and instructive. According to a statement that appeared in a recent issue of "The Dreadnought," a No-License paper published in Foxton"; two wealthy Wairarapa settlers have donated £400 each to the No-License campaign fund in that elec- :'.'■■ torate. The services of Mr. Bridges, • who organised for Masterton at the last poll, have been engaged. Dr. Henry, the, well-known American : avangelist, in an .-address on the liquor question at Masterton, made some interesting points on the progress of the movement in the United States. He said: There were now about 55,000,000 people out of 90,000,000 living in districts that were "dry." They had voted out at least one thousand saloons per month without one penny of compensation, being paid the brewers. . . . There were in round figures, two million ■' men engaged in thb railway service there, and these men were employed on a teetotal basis. They had to promise that they would not use intoxicating liquors during the time they were at work. The result was that ' there, were fewer strikes, the service was better and the safety of the passengers and trains was assured as it had never been before. Mr. D. ■ M'Gregor, sen., stated he would like to ask Dr. Henry a question, in regard to the bare majority vote. It had been stated *if wc had the bare majority vote hero wo would be. continually see-sawing from 'No-License to and vice versa. What had boon the history of this question in America? Was the bare majority vote a satisfactory basis to work on? Dr. Henry stated, in reply, that all ■?.- • their victories in America had been won on a bare majority vote, and the temperance sentiment, instead of declining, was continually rising and was '. never higher than to-day. The bare majority was either right or it was wrong. If it was right in every other direction it was right here. (Hear, hear.) He was not afraid ( to trust the bare majority, and in his opinion any weaknesses in connection with the system were more than counter-balanced 'by the advantages. ' Even if an electorate went back for one or two years they would gain half a dozen others in its place. "I believe," he concluded, "that every community should have the opportunity of saying for itself whether it wants drink or not."