INVERCARGILL INVERKEGVILLE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2310, 18 November 1914, Page 7

INVERCARGILL INVERKEGVILLE

A CREAT, CLOUD OF WITNESSES. WHAT NO-LIOENSE HAS DONE. . /' . ■ - (By New Zealander.) Speaking to the Premier in July, 191<l, the Mayor of InvercaTgill.said:— "I am sure Prohibition has not been in the best interests of Invercargill." Mr. J. B. Thomson, a well-known manufacturer of temperance drinks in Invercargill, said: —"No-License has created the keg-party system in Invercargill, and is fraught with greater evils than were conceivable under Licensing. Under No-Licone'e otherwise' respectable citizens have to resort to practices ■■ far from benefioial to themselves or the oommunity." The Mayor of Invercargill says the tendency of No-License is to increase

the consumption of alcoholic liquors in the homes of the people and in ways not good for the people or the town; and ho. declared: "The evils of NoLicense in Invercargill have been understated." ■ '

"Our reporter passing through Gala Street .at 11 p.m. encountered no fewer than seven. keg-parties within a few minutes' walk of the hospital. How many keg-parties would have been discovered by an active searcher it would bo impossible to say."—"SouthlandTimes,' 1 June 15th, 1914. Sir. Solicitor Inder, a' well-known Invercargill lawyer, says: "No-License, forces men to drink in urinals and out-of-the-way places."—Vide "Evening Post," May 14th, 1914. .'..'.-. Detectivo Cameron: "There are hundreds of keg parties about Invercargill regularly."—Extract from a re. port of a keg-party case. Mr. Thomas Hutchison-, the Stipendiary Magistrate, speaking from the Bench in an Invercargill No-License,' liquor case, said: "It is quite true kegparties are a common institution, and the name 'Inverrkegyille' seemed a very appropriate one." —"Southland Times," July 9th, 1914...• Sir. Solicitor Tipping, in defending the "keggers," Baid: "The better class had their homes and their clubs, to drink in, but these men were the victims of an unreasonable law." (Ibid.) NO-LICENSE PROMOTES HOME DRINKING. Sir. W. J. Hawley, Collector of Cus.toms, Invercargill, has issued a. return showing that for the year ended Slay 31, 1914, there were 40,648 two-gallon kegs of beer distributed in Invercargill for "home consumption," an average of 3380 kegs per month. No other town in. New Zealand, licensed or unlicensed, can show such a record, as Invercargill in this respect., f There were also 300, three and five-gallon kegs delivered every month to Invercargillites during the same, period. ' The "Southland News" estimates that Invercargiir consumes of beer in this way 8i gallons per man, woman, and child per annum; and then there is the legitimate importation of other than local beers, and some 96,000 gallons spirituous and other liquors through the Courts—vide the Rev.. L. M.. Isitt's Parliamentary return. No estimate oan be formed of the sly grog imports. The worst feature of fnvercargill's No-License regime is that Invercargill produces a larger number of "first offenders" for drunkenness than .is the .average of all the licensed districts in | the Dominion.

: V NOiICENSE STAGNATES. :/'... Residents, like the Mayor of Invercargill, whose chief concern is the moral,--social, and material progress of the town, deplore prohibition and tho effects of No-License. They see Inverdargill progressing in population at the rato of only 2.65 per cent, per annum, while similarly-sized towns,' Wanganui apd Timaru, under licensing, are advancing at the rate of 6.76 and. 9,62 per cent, per annum respectively. : The fair-minded residents of InveroaTgill see the moral degradation No-* License produces with its keg-party system and sly groggoriee, and many, who were favourable to No-License are now opposed to it. In 1905 there were 2573 against No-Licenso, and it was carried, but in 1911 there were 3444 for restoration; and not in that year, nor in 1908, could No-License have been carried had the vote been an originating one. Thus No-License in operation always lessens the strength of the voting in its favour—and that is the evidence of all No-License areas in New Zealand, saving two ; suburbs of Auckland. ■ • At' a time like the present no elector who, loves his country and would promote its social and material wellbeing will vote for No-License or Prohibition. Invercargill's experience and the testimony" of its leading citizens ought to be convincing proof of the failure of No-License and of the- evils of Prohibition. No-License promotes slygroggeries and worse evils, and' Prohibition, says Cardinal Gibbons, makes hypocrites of men and women. Everyone should oppose any attempt to put the degrading conditions of No-License upon any other fawn.—-Published by. arrangement. ■ ;.-.-'"•

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES. (By Teleerapli.—Prosa Association.) ■' 6- — TWO MEN KILLED.. ■ '•■-.',' fauranga, November 17. • While an old resident, B. Ward, was well-sinking at Otumoitar yesterday, an empty bucket dropped on his head from the top of the well and fractured his skull. He died.after being brought to the surface. The jury's verdict at the inquest was accidental death, and that no one was to blame. ; A man named Stuart Gumming,, working in the borough electrical works at Omanawa Falls, was killed by a fall of rock this afternoon. He had been, mar-, ried four months, and his home is in Rotorua. ' 'ARM AND LEG BROKEN. While attempting to get off one" of tho New Zealand Express Company's, motor-lorries when opposite Hay Street, Oriental Bay, yesterday about noon, a boy named Frederick Card by some means foil beneath the lorry, which passed over one arm and one log break-' ing them both. ■ The boy, who resides with his paronts in Scarborough Torrace, was at once taken' to the Hospital, whore he was attended to. He was reported from that, institution last night to bo doing as well as could be expected.