ABSURDITY OF REDUCTIONS

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1615, 30 November 1905, Page 1

ABSURDITY OF REDUCTIONS

It is a rank absurdity to imagine that the causa of temporuuco reform will bo extended by the curtailment of tho number of lioonsos in operation in a city. Shopkeepers know that a certain amount of trade has to bo done in all communities. Any increase in tho number of traders would lessen the volume of eaoh individual trader, but it would not roduoo tho total trade dono. Tho oonverso is likewise true. Lot tho trado to bo dono be of a cortain volume, and let tho ourtailmont or reduction of those to do it be cUcoted, and those remaining would do tho greater amount of business. Let this be applied to the trade in alcoholic drinks, and the absurdity of reduotiou is apparout. Lot it be supposed that there arc forty liconsoß in Wellington: Reduction, if carried at tho poll, might moan tho withdrawal of ton licenses. But no intelligent person for a moment would imagine that tho consumption of alcoholio liquors would bo diminished by that means., If a man wants a drink, a hundred yards or a quartor of a mile to walk to get it will not deter him from his purpose. Reduction is neither a tomperanoo reform nor a means of restraining an alleged monopoly in liquor-selling. By reduotiou a few houses would bo closed, but the trade of those loft would' proportionately increase. Then why should the community ogree to destroy tho property of one man in order that bis neighbor a few doors away might absorb his trade ? Reduction does not appeal, any more than no-liocnse or prohibition, to the Brit'shera’ love of fair dealing, and the more reasonable of our prohibition friends oanDot surely agree to vpte for tho runniDg of a few men so that their fellows in the same line might secure an inorease in trade and wealth. The two bottom lines of the vot-iog-paper ought therefore to be oblitcr- ! ated.—Wellington Post.