NO-LICENSE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2339, 4 November 1908, Page 6

NO-LICENSE

[To the Editor.] •Sir, —.Replying to “Reason” who says “that sly grog is carried on under present conditions”, if “Reason” knows why does he not inform the police. Are they in favor of No-license? Will the No-license party be deprived of their votes? “Reason” reasons that) when No-licefise is carried it will be easier to sheet, the crime home. That will depend entirely on who it is. If he carries the cloak of religion, he will never be brought to book. In Poverty Bay in the early days >t was common fio put the seed in- the ground and get drunk till the potatoes were ready to dig. This was the way the natives learned to drink. This was Poverty Bay under No-license, and if the making and importation is allowed we cannot expect that good will come under such a law. And our homes will suffer; women will be barmaids in their own homes. Clause 9 is the only cure. “Reason” should consider the above clause. The Nolicense movement is the track of the serpent, or the old Bible story of: — “Not me ; my wife, she gave me to eat.” "When the son does wrong the father pleads he was led away by bad company. "When the mail gets drunk the publican is blamed. And the poor barmaid attracts the sons. The Church has taught this creed from that serpent story. This same serpent will bring ruin into the home. The drunkard does not try to cover his fault, and is as open as day. Now better ■‘that a woman be married to the man that drinks than the money grabber, who stints his. home of the necessaries of life that he may gather money. His wife lives her life without any sympathy, and the family generally turn out ■ stinted in mind. “New Zealand” says I do not place a very creditable estimate upon my husband’s character for honesty or morality. I place my husband on ia "pedestal above all 1 men, because lie is not a total abstainer, and JL never saw him drunk. He is able to steer himself clear of excess. But “lead us not into Temptation, deliver us from evil,” the evil of no-license which will undermine tlie sacred precincts of home life if drink is allowed to come into the home. I pray the women of this district' not to vote for No-license as it' does not prohibit the consumption of the drink within our electorates When I lift my hand it will be for the stopping of making or importation into the district of liquor of any kind, so that the rich and the poor are under the same law. If all those who voted No-license last election were true to their colors the open bar would not exist in our midst. But the advocates of No-licenso themselves admit that thc-y are not. total abstainers. Unless the advocates of a cause arc true they cannot succeed. “Woman Voter.” refers me to the Rev. E. Wliitehonse, of Ashburton. The clergy have the last chance of any trade or profession to find out what is going on in a district. His cloth will not allow -him to frequent a slygrog place to. know what is going on. He must rely on the information of others, which is often not reliable. Personal knowledge is the only evidence in a Court of Law. The women of New Zealand have not to thank the clergy for their right to vote on this great question. Nolicense is not the cure for drink. The cure is worse than the disease.—l am, etc.,

"TOTAL ABSTAINER.’

[To the Editor.] Sir, —Some of the statements in Mr. Crawford’s letter are very amusing to sensible people. Such as the father going to bod with his silk hat on and the mother with her hoots on. Mr. Crawford lias spent 25 years in the trade and has watched, the management of the hotels with interest since his 1 retirement, and says he -is in -a position to give an unbiassed opinion. . Well, I ‘would ask Mr. Crawford if he has kept & tally of all the drunks that have been turned oiit, the “finished article,” whose corpses have been fished out of the Turanganui River or broken their (necks on their way home drunk; or of the dozens of victims who have been-lambed down; of the many happy homes that have been broken up through the “vilest fiend of all.” What about our poets Bracken and Adam Lindsay Gordon, or Marcus Clarke, author pf the best Australian

•novel ever written, “Ear the Term of his Natural Life! ; and scores of other celebrities who have gone dow n in the battle of life through the ei> rents of strong drink! In our own sober Gisborne Magistrate’s Court a- few weeks ago I saw a woman sentenced to three, months imprisonment in Napier gaol-who-has been brought to. this position, through the open bar. I can "look back thirty-three years ago when I saw that same woman a bright, handsome girl, moving in good society. Her father had a large shipbuilding yard, one of her brothers .was mayor of a town in the South Island; another brother a sea captain. She got a liking for drink, and. this is the end of it. Another year or two and she sinks into a drunkard's grave, unwept, unhonored, and. unsung. This is tlie trade we are asked to continue; those, who ask us to do so should he proud of themselves.

Mr. Crawford is trying to sidetrack us on this issue when he prates about “mine host” of the inn being sueli a fountain of information; devoting a good deal of 'his time to local and general politics, encouraging sports, welcoming the belated traveler, being a 'reliable source of general and topographical information. Why should not all these good qualities belong to him still? Although ’lie may not be able to retail liquor, no one" wants to take them away from him. It is very misleading of Mr. Crawford to say that “the attempt to do away with the well-regulated and conducted houses of rest and refreshment- deserves more than a passing thought.” No one wants to do away with these we 10 conducted houses. I hope they will always be there to supply the ants of man and beast, but by knocking out the bar with a Tommy 'Burns blow a man will not make a beast of himself. “4 X 2’s” letter is such a lot of clap-trap' and improbabilities that I would not waste good ink in replying to it. —I am, etc.,

“A TRUE BRITISHER.”