LIQUOR PROHIBITION. -MR SPRAGG'S STATEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2168, 5 June 1914, Page 9

LIQUOR PROHIBITION. -MR SPRAGG'S STATEMENT.

Sir,—l have, just received a codt nf por lons.of the world which]'"ha"re cently visited. I notice that -Mod™. ft t c ,°" fi ™ s % important reported 'than hi 'if « ,1,,0ns <? f S„™ ? f tho population of the T/mtccl Statcs-aro to-day living ui.dcr some form of J«, nor prohibition I ' t | he and I might havo said that fnrther big areas have been added to the Probibition districts. . 'Since my visit six short months ago, I am glad i.„ have this pregnant fact acknowledged, and repeated. . ' nu It seems, however, that having agreed upon the tacts we offer in our conclusions upon them, "Moderate's" letter infers that the outcome of the zeal of Americans in closing liquor saloons is that more liquor is being' consumed in tho prohibited areas. If this is really what ho means, I at once hand him over for correction to the bettor-inform-ed of his American .confreres, who have decided that the silly suggestion that Prohibition docs not prohibit is of no further use to them in their present losing conflict with the anti-liquor foi'CM. I want you to allow me to sav that statements, quotations, figures," and conclusions given by the average liquor advocate need never he accepted as accurate or truthful. This is not reallv a reflection upon them, because the lawful liquor business, which they defend, does, in its ordinary, course, produce consequences of so dire a character, that falsifying used in protecting it is 'by comparison with the traffic' it-

self, as innocent as a baby's babblings would bo when contrasted with I'leaiw killing. Tho doings of the legal liquor business, as reported in the daily Press for ono week is proof of this. 1 shall be glad to amplify this contention, if you will allow me. "Moderate's" frank admission of the facts previously quoted indicate that ho is of a better typo, 1 therefore accept his figures as to tho United' States drink bill, especially since writing as I am doing on a railway train, I have no means of checking thein. I am, for tho same reason, unable to analyse the American figures, but the following respecting the New Zealand drink bill for 1912 will supply tho key to tho explanation, which he seems to want:— Average" consumption of liquor per head for the Dominion, 755. Consumption per head in licensed areas, 80s. Consumption per head in No-L'icenso areas, 18s. Gd. Theso iiguros givo tho result of the partial measure of No-Licenso in New Zealand. Anti-saloon rule will doubtless givo similar results in America. Dominion Prohibition will assuredly Rive bettor results here, and so will tho coming constitutional Federal Prohibition in the United States.

"Moderate's" difficulties in finding arguments to defend the liquor traffic have reduced him to tho, necessity for again trotting out tho thread-bare assertion that "no people ever became renowned who wore total abstainers by law and religion." For tho present it will be enough to .say that it is' equally true that no' people "ever becamo renowned" who were freo from loathsome physical diseases. To conclude that theso .diseases contributed to,their renown is as logical and true as to fact as it is to-Bay that alcoholic liquors have dono. Tho historical truth is that alcohol'has been ono of the most potent of tho destroyers of the Empires of renown. I think I do "Moderate" justice in assuming that ho intended tho quotation from the poet Burns's convivial line) "Freedom' and whisky gang thcgcthcr," as "flapdoodle." Ho. might have remembered that there is a diminishing number of people in" New Zealand who were willing to be fed upon J this kind of food for fools. "Freedom and whisky gang the-gcther." So they have done, perforce, but their connection with each other has' been infinitely more remote ,than that between Tentedon Steeple and the Goodwin Sands. Folly and Ngcnius also "gang thocether," or Burns would'not have penned that, and many another silly lino. Disease and health march together down tho same street and through the same house. Death and life aro

, equally intimates. It's a mad mixture, , truly,' but these things which are found together antagonise each other, and 'most peoplo recognise the fact. ' If I may bo allowed a further word, let. mo accept ' 'Moderate's'' ; ' application to our party of St. Paul's words: "Faith is the su'bstanco of things .hoped for—tho evidence of things not seen." , The ground of our "hope" is everywhere an increasing quantity. The "evidence" of what is still just beyond our vision—the destruction of the liquor traffic becomes more- and more apparent. Let mc.clo.so-by saying that-1 am in sympathy with what I would fain hope is "Moderate's" impatience at the lingering death of the liquor traffic, but wc may all take cheer from the same confession of somo of those engaged iu it that tho death-rattle is already in its throat, and that the emancipation of its victims, direct and indirect, is near at hand.—l am, etc., WESLEY SPRAGG