FINDING A SOLUTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 290, 27 August 1918, Page 7

FINDING A SOLUTION

Sir, —I was rather amused at tho camouflage the prohibitionist person put up in your paper this morning over tho iiijuor question on tho pica of Jinding a solution, liaising a laugh is easy—tho circus clown does that—but tho /Hiding of a .solution is not a laughing matter.

Here wo have the trade putting forward a petition for tho alteration of tho ballot papers to include National (1) Continuance, (2) Ownership, and (3) Prohibition; and wo have tho Prohibition Party promulgating a petition to pay £5,000,000 for immediate prohibitjon, with a loss of revenue (according to tho Hon. G. W. Bussell, who has prohibition leanings) of £1,300,000 a yt-ar. The cost of living is high eno'.ig'o now, but on whom is this extra burden of taxation going to fall with our national debt approximating two hundred millions storling? This is r.oi. si question for tho brewers, prohibitionists, and publicans. It I is a vital question to the whole- com- | iminily. After the last election in I 1914, when the prohibitionists lost the I National' issue by over, ten thousand voites, Mr. Masscy and Sir Joseph Ward snid a proper solution of tho liquor traffic should be found. Mr. Massey himself suggested State owncrI ship, and, quoting from a British ParI liameutary Committee, said: "They ro- | port that State control or State owner- | ship will be'the solution of tho diffi- | culty." And Mr. Massoy concluded: I "Wo will have to find a remody in i some way or other." That was on I July 22, 1917. Some time later the j president of the Wellington Prohibi- | tion League (Mr. R. G. Dcnton) wrote: j "Let us buy out and shut up the j trade forever." The Efficiency Board ■—that body of wise and impartial men I —says: "Let us have prohibition nnd [■pay reasonable compensation to the j parties affected." And this tho New j Zealand Alliance has adopted, j Thus the trend of public opinion on ! all sides is in favour of finding a solu- ; tion. But tho public have never had j an opportunity of saying whether they I «ill have Continuance, State ownership ior Prohibition; hence tho necessity for j the three issues to bo on the ballot paper. It seems to mo that as prohiI bition has failed to promoto temperj iince in the Dominion, and as State I ownership and control in Great Brii tain has resulted in a fifty per cent. I decrease in drunkenness, then State i , ownership seems to bo the solution, if j temperance is to ho promoted. No I one wants to seo drunkenness spreading, and tho growth of intemperance in New Zealand has synchronised with j the growth of prohibition, j In 1894, when prohibition just came into fashion, the drink bill was £3 Is. Id. per annum per head, and the I cases of drunkenness were about six (6) j per 1000 of the population; and according to Mr. A. S. Adams, the reli- | I ,iblo prohibitionist, the drink bill in New Zealand was £4 2.». lid. per an- i mini per,head, and the cases of intoxication were 10 per 10D0 of the popula- ; tion. As prohibition is not- a temper- j auco but a political inurement, one cannot, however, expect moral im-: provement in a community from a poll- j tical agitation, so tliero has been no community advantage from the prohibiI tion agitation. j I AH tho leading prohibitionists (at I I least, many who were leading prohibi- \ i tionists) liko Mr, Lloyd George, Sir j Thomas Whitaker, Mr. Philip Snow•'den, Sir J. fJ. Rickett (who with Sir : T. Wkiraker. was a vice-president of ! tho V.K. Alliance) aro all, with such I papers as the "Spectator," supporting State purchase or ownership. To bo in line witjh those leading temperance lights in Great Britain, tho prohibition- i ist-s of. New Zealand have just one short step to take from "prohibition witlV £5~000,0Q0 compensation" to State purchase, and the three-issue ballot will give thorn and all citizens a chance o! swinging into line with tho great temperance leaders named.—l am, etc., TRUE TEMPERANCE. August 23.