THE LARGER ISSUE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1289, 18 November 1911, Page 6

THE LARGER ISSUE.

AIORE THAN SENTIMENT INVOLVED. THE LOSS TO THE STATE, At a time when hysterics tako the plaoe of argument, as, for tho most part, is tho case whero the clamour to closo tho public bars in New Zealand rises loudest, consideration of tho commercial eido of tho fray is too apt to bo overlooked, but tho citizen who lias an car open only for a one-sidod eentimontalisin, aud a mind which does not rellect upon all the sido issues involved, is not giving that thought to great national questions which tho State is entitled to expect from him. This applies, of course, to women as well as to men. No person should fail to mako an attempt to realise tho effects upon the economic conditions of his country which are involved in any schonie lor crushing tho liquor trade out of existence, li'or instance, there is tho Dominion revenue which was assisted in 1909, as under:— ■ £ B. d. Customs duties on ales, spirits, aud wines bsl,2H 0 0 Uxcise duties on local beer... 1H.799 0 0 756,013 0 0 Add to that license fees, which form part of tho ''. revenue of local bodies 43)017 0 0

Total revenue 805,030 0 0 Next wo come to tho fact that the capital valuo of all licensed houses as'fixed by tho Government Statistician -in 1910 amounted to about X1,15G,W7; and there, incidontally, lies tho auswer to the oftrepeated question as to why the liquor party bo assiduously oppose the spread of No-Licon.se, which carries with it au increased consumption of liquor. Very little, reflection will show that tho purpose of prohibilury law carries with it tho purposo to destioy property of immense valuo accumulated under tho special sanction of law from which the Government has for many years derived so largo an amount of its Customs and excise revenue. The whole point is that, while the prohibitory lawn have not diminished tho consumption of intoxicants, they have changed the means of distribution from legal to illegal channels, so that if New Zealand adopts the scheme of prohibition it will lose over .£BOO,OOO of direct revenue, and destroy over ■£4,000,000 of hotel property, to wy nothing of breweries and wine and spirit businesses owned by a section of its citizens, and this without achieving the end sought for by the destroyers. That has been th« experience elsewhere, and there is no good reason to expect that New Zealand would be saved from a similar experience by any special providem*. Next to lie considered, or, perhaps, first to bo considered, arc those whoso living depends upon the trade- and the citizen with a vote must nsU himself what is to become of the people :n New Zealand who. aro engaged in or connected with the. sale or manufacture of wine, spirits, beer, cordials, etc. It is idle to answer, as tho No-License advocate is prone to do, that/'rooin will bo found for them somewhore." If room is so easily found for those who find themselves and their families cast adrift foi , some' reason or another, hundreds and hundreds of New Zealanders who have left their country within tho past year or two to seek employment in Australia would have been glad of its exact whereabouts. Reverting to the losi of revenue, it is quite clear that it would have to be made up in some other direction. There is no need to argue here as to whether the Government is morally right or wrong to depend eo largely upon the liquor' trade to meet its financial obligations.; Academical theories of right or wrong" will not remove tho essential fact that if. nearly ono million of money is no longer ■ secured from tho trade in alcoholic liquors ' it will have to be oWnined in some other form of direct or indirect taxation. Can tho country stand more taxation?

Again, the loss to the subsidiary trades demands attention. Some of. these could not exist if No-Lioenso or prohibition closed down the breweries. Others, while not deriving their business wholly from tho breweries and hotels, are able to employ a substantially larger number of persons because of tlie goods they tnanu. facture, or services they supply for the trade generally. There are the hop, grape, sugar, and barley growers, horsebreeders, bottle-makers, coopers, carpenters, architects builders of vehicles, saddlers, box-makers, and many others, all providing, employment for reputable citizens.

And all this dead waste for what? If modern social history, open to any reader, is correct, it will be for anything but beneficial results. In the United States, tho home of this and other "freak" legislation ft special committee of inquiry known as the Committee of Fifty received tho findins of an exhaustive examination from a sub-committee, composed of Chns. \V Eliot, President Emeritus, of Harvard University, Soth Low, and James C Carter, all irreproachable men, ns , follows:— "Prohibilion legislation has failed to exclude intoxicants completely, even from districts where public scntnnont has ton favourable. In districts where public sentiment has been advert or straifflv divided, the traffic in nlcobohc bevoraMS has been sometimes repressed or harassed, but never exterminated or rendered unprofitable. In Maine and Torn (duriii" the prohibition period) there have always" been counties and municipalities, in complete, and successful rebellion a»aiixt the law. Prohibition has, of crmr«e failed to subdue the drmkinß passion which will forever prompt resistance (o all rcstrictivo legislation/' ■ The best way to avoid tho dcpadniß influence of prohibition is to strike out tfio bottom Hues on both ballot papers.