NO-LICENSE FROM A WORKINGMAN’S POINT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2347, 13 November 1908, Page 2

NO-LICENSE FROM A WORKINGMAN’S POINT.

[To the Editor.]Sir, —I am in receipt of the following letter and have since obtained the consent of Mr Clarke to publication. For the edification of the workers of the district and their wives kindly publish. I have made the necessary enquiries las to the. bona fides of the writer. —I am, etc., JOHN SHERIDAN. Mr J. Sheridan, Gisborne.

Dear Sir, —I read a pamphlet by you and want to tol you that you did not go half far enough with Ash' burton. I have just come away from there and can tell you that things are a lot worse than you say or know about. I have worked around Ashburton for the last 4 years iand am well-known to all the cockies. I don’t know anything of tho financial business, but I do know things are rotten for the working man in the district, and the town is dead. Mr Whitehouse said that sly-grog shops were dying out, but I know that there is tas many as ever there was. Everybody in Ashburton knows Mr Bryant, and his letter is right. One of the most respected men living there is Mr Shury, and wliat he does not know about Ashburton is not worth knowing. It is rot to say that there is any difficulty in getting a drink. The No-license people mean that there is a difficulty in getting good drink. 'Whenever a, working man makes a cheque his first move is to get to Christchurch or Timaru, that is if lie does not happen to gee into a sly-grog shop, and get beaten for the lot. One is called the “Dew Drop .Inn” and they do drop in. On Saturday afternoon all you have to do is catch the express for Te.muka or Timaru and come back armed to the teeth with bottles for 1 yourself or your mates. There is one tiling you don’t mention at all, that is the pocket pedlar,, who is always ready to oblige you with a nip for the small sum of a bob. But if the man 'has not got the “necessary” you can beat him down to a tanner. So the

••Lighthouse”, as he is commonly called, does pretty well. He can be found iany time you want him and you can just step into a dark corner of the Domain and all is well. 'But let me tell you that two nips from a “Lighthouse” will put- you forrader than ten out of a pub. And what a difference in the morning! I have met several men from Ashburton here and you should get them to write to the papers. Jim Rjussell, who works for you will tell what I say is true. Jim was always in the town and knows it backwards. .. Get him to give you a few tips iand put up your shirt that Ashburton will get license back next week. The working anen here in Gisborne are ail right, but would be fools to make it 'like Ashburton. What you said about drink in private houses is quite right, and you need not be afraid to stick to it. 1 know at (least three cases where working men have to thank No-license for their wives drinking. Mr AYhitehouse is a decent sort of a man, but take it from me lie goes about with one eye shut, and the goody-goodies throw dust an the other eye. I am working at AYainui for Mr Partington, and if anyone wants the strength of Ashburton., they can'come to me and I will tell them my experience. I’d like to tell them about the last tradesman’s picnic to Timiaru from Ashburton; they did nothing.— I am, etc., Y. Y. CLARKE.

[To the Editor.] • Sir, —I would -like, with your kind permission, to make a few remarks upon- the vexed question of license or no-fiicense. I think that any man or woman possessed of common-sense and observation ,and who read the newspapers and note the proceedings in the S.AI. Courts, and not® the number of cases that are dealt with in those courts, caused by intoxicating liquor —the accused often .pleading guilty, -with the remark “I was drunk when I done it;” also the remarks of judges of supreme courts, magistrates and coroners upon the evils of intoxicating drink, can only vote one way. If people would take note of their neighbors to see which are the happier, those who indulge in strong -drink and those who do not touch it, they will have no difficulty in deciding which way to vote on election day. AVhat a- great number of men of splendid physique in the Dominion spend all their learnings, thereby wasting the opportunity of providing a place where they can have all the privileges and comforts of a home and the love of a wife and family. This is a question worth looking into. —I am, etc., * L.D.

[To the Editor.] Sir, —I make it a rule not to. reply to -anonymous . effusions, believing that they are mostly cowardly, and always worthless. . “Churchgoer” must therefore occupy tho' .pillory until he learns better manners. I will then reply to him. AY© have sometimes wondered why the liquor advocates .leave Glutha severely -alone in warning electors against th© danger of sly grog. After -reading Inspector 1 O’Brien’s annual report, published in the “OtagoyDaily Times,” we cease to wonder. 'He states:; — “As regards Clfftha district (No-lic-ense area) I have much pleasure in stating thaU there has -been, hut one prosecution for sly grog selling during the year, and there is evidence of'"the offence being reduced to a minimum.” After this fearful org-ie of crime, Glutha will of course vote back the open bar at the -coming election,

And what of “‘lnvercargill? Inspector Mitchell, of that town, in -his annual report, printed in the same paper, stites: “There" is no evidence that sly grog sales are being carried on to any appreciable extent in either tho Invercargill or Mata-u----ra electorates, or in the Tapanui or Clinton sub-districts. Perchance the inspectors are “fanatical partisans!” ; A word to those who question my right to light tho liquor traffic. I dearly love peace, but knowing, better than .most people, the misery through drunkenness That exists here and in every parish in which I have worked, I should be a coward of the worst kind if, for the sake of popularity, or of money, I remained neutral. I speak of myself, -not of other clergy. The closing of the-open- (or rather the screened in) bar is, to me, at least, a moral rather tlian a political matter. But even were it political, are po’itics so u'lrty that they would soil a parson’s cloth!'- I am, etc., L. DAWSON '! .DAILY