LIQUOR REFERENDUM
MR. W. D. LYSNAH'S OPINION
As one who has tho true welfare of this Dominion at heart and has given the proiutiiUun question close study, having some years back suggested to Parliament certain remedial measures which are now law, and never havin; been connected witn the liquor trade directly or imurc'ctly, 1 would earnestly ask the elector.-; in recording their vott» on April 10 next, to unhesitatingly vote against, prohibition or no-license lor the following reasons, inter aha:—While acknowledging the evils ol drink are bad and (he drunkard degenerates himself down to a callous unprincipled brute, 1 say— 1. No-license is not the truo remedy for the evits of drink, and in my opinion it is an ungodly and immoral reform, for it. begets worse evils than drunkenness, which we must all admit are bad enough l and should not bo intensified. Tho Rev. Mr. lsitt in effect acknowledged this when he some time back acknowledged no-license was not the true remedy for the evils of drink, but he contended it would force the country to find the true remedy then, lijshop Julius, who was heralded by the No-Liceuso Party as a striking prohibitionist, in a letter he wrote me said: "L think prohibition if local to bo ineffective for good and likely to beget worse evils than drunkenness, and I think colonial prohibition to be undesirable and unnecessary, and certain to provoke a bitter reaction." Surely any remedy which begets worse evils than drunkenness should be regarded as nngodly. 2. It is impossible to make people, sober or stop drinking by a vote of the people or by Act of Parliament, for if'it is attempted, it will be resisted and the law will be defied and disregarded, and a law that is disobeyed is worse than no law. and a community that is taught to defy its laws in this way will become immoral and degenerate. My observation goes to 6bow that the agitators for liquor reform do not sufficiently study human nature, for unless a reasonable vent is left open to meet their accustomed requirements, the law will bo disregarded and defied.
3. If licenses are .done away with, ljad liquor will bo manufactured illegally, and smuggling will bo resorted to, and this Dominion would have to create a chain of coastguards around its shores, as England had to do to stop smuggling, without; success.
■f. To the women voters who may be. disposed to voto for prohibition with the erroneous belief that it would remove temptation from their brother, son, or husband, I would remind them that nt present if they drink to excess, they onlv commit a misdemeanour in the eyes of the law and not a crime, and there is always a hope of their redeeming themselves, but if they voto no-licenso they may force their relatious to become criminals and felons of the worst kind, with no hope of redemption under .such circumstances—is it not better to allow tho lesser evil to remain? This is practically admitted by the Prohibition' Party, as in 1903 tho Rev. P. .lsitt and Rev. J". Dawson, leaders of tho prohibition movement, issued the following manifesto regarding clause 9, as proposed by tlio late Right Ilou. Mr. Seddon, which provided for total prohibition as in the forthcoming referendum:—
. "We protest against tho threatened invasion of tho privacy of the homo by inspectors of police, against the esnjonage that clause 9 would produce, against the strained relations and suspicions that will arise amongst neighbours, against the incentive to breaches of the peace on tho part of dcccnt and selfrespecting citizens, which would accom. pany inquisitorial questionings and domiciliary visits; and, above all, against tho insidious attempt to handicap a great and genuine social reform by attaching to it an unprecedented invasion of private rights and liberties.'" 5. Tho extreme "No-License" Party lias apparently taken advantage of tho excitement caused through the war. and the Efficiency Board's report which suggested tluit greater efficiency would bo obtained by prohibition, and j very largo section of 'modcrato minded people have beon stirred to action with the. belief that something should lx? done to assist to win the war—this phase should be entirely eliminated now. as the war has been won.
G. We aro beinj urged to vote nolicenso because (a) the National Efficiency Board recommended it; lb) because the board claim whero no-license has been adopted it lias been a success; (e) tho professional prohibition lecturers aro also saying because Canada ami United States aro alleged to have adopted prohibition, which was really intended as a war measure, we should do likewise; (tl) bccause drinking is ail evil.
Regarding A, for the reason that four of the members out of live, viz., Messrs. Ferguson,. Hunt, Gunson, and Moss are pronounced prohibitionists, tho report cannot be considered as other than a. partisan report. Regarding 13, only partisans could make such a statement, for if the question'is impartially investigated, it must bo admitted that no-liceuso has proved a hideous failure, aiul produces worse evils than drunkenness, and retards Iho district morally and financially. .Results show -that there is more liquor consumed in districts under no-license than under license. This is not a mere statement, but tho result of an impartial inquiry held before arbitrators in Gisborne, whose award was signed by the Kev. Mr. Chatterton, the then president of tho No-License League in Gisborne, and myself, and while it is claimed with justification that there are less convictions for drunkenness, it should be remembered that directly a person gets drunk in a no-license area ho is kept under lock and key or control until lie sobers up; this is done* to stop detection of the sly grog business; under the present license system an hotelkecper must not havo a drunken man on his premises—is this not better than having your .9011 or husband locked up in <i sly grog shop perhaps for days, and not know where or how ho is?
Regarding C, wo arc being urged to adopt total prohibition largely beeauso Canada and America ore alleged lo have adopted it; as a matter of fact I ho position is most obscure, and' according lo tile American and Canadian Press is being strenuously contested over there nl; ihri present lime-one thing, however, is clear, and that is that total prohibition is not operative in either country today, and in fact has not been tried, llowev-er, let both Ihese countries try and prove thai total prohibition is good, and then come and tell us tho result, and not as at present allow professional lecturers lo suggest; to us what the result. will be. Prohibition in certain localities in tho States and Canada, sanio as in New Zealand, has been tried with unquestionably mad results if impartial testimony is obtained, which 1 frankly iicknou'iedgo is very difficult lo obtain. As an instance of this I might slate that' both a bishop and clergyman of 1117 own Church denied I he truth in order, as (ho latter said, to help the prohibition cause. If any leader of the no-licenso parly questions this, 1 will supply names *utd facls lo justify'my statement. Then then) are a number who apparently con only see one fide of this question, and are' always ready lo testily lo the benefits of prohibition. Under these circumstances testimonials extolling the good of prohibition should be very cautiously accepted. The Rev. Mr. Tsitt. on one, occasion, said if you want to know about, the good ' prohibition has- done to Balciutha, go* and see a certain gentleman there, and he, will tell von all about it. I went there a.nd found this gentleman had been arrested for sly grog-selling, and when arrested the records show he said: "Please, sir, it was not 1110 but my wife who sold the grog," with the result the wife was lined ,ClO. I would ask what good would (ho testimony from such a person be, yet the no-license pariv quoted him. But what has _\ merira done that, professional lecturers ■should suggest we should . follow her lead: Ihev" look nearly four years lo decid" if they would come into tho war —their country is renowned for prod tiein" load »nd shipping trust. which act detrimentally to the food ooumuuoiv- and producers. America is also more renowned for its lynching law than perImps aiiv other country in (he world, and in mv judgment, from personal invesication in I'.e United Stales, llio secret of this has been mainly caused by the people being taught to defy (lie Prohibition laws, which in tho past has been a mero farce in America. Regarding D, it is not tho liquor that is bad, but. its abuse, and oil things can bo abused, and tho question is-will not
prohibit ion produce worso evils tlinn excessive drinking? (i. Drink in jiiutJer.ition is a necessity to tho majority of people, while those who prohibition is erroneously intended to benefit. represent but a mero handful of tho population. 7. I would urpie. doctors to disregard sentiment, and any spirit ot' revenge, because of some-near triend or relation who lias fallen through drink. In my judgment, tho disadvantages of no-license aro so great- that 1 decline for myself to relinquish tho use of wino and spirits, to vluch I am accustomed in moderation all my lifo, while at tho same time I have no de-sire (o force a prohibitionist to take wine and spirits against his wish—l will leave him alone, but ho must leave mo alone also.
.1 merely place my views before the people in the hope that tho electors will consider tho question in all its phases and give an 'intelligent vote on April 10.
W. DOUGLAS LYSNAE Gisborne, .March it), ll>l9.
(Published by Arrangement.)
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19190322.2.101
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 152, 22 March 1919, Page 10
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,629LIQUOR REFERENDUM Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 152, 22 March 1919, Page 10
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.