Page 3 Advertisements Column 3

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 November 1911, Page 3

A Worried Wife's Letter. ♦ NO-LICEN SE EX POSED. DRUNKEN DOINGS IN A "DRY" DISTRICT. PTIHE letter which appears below J. speaks for itself. This correspondent lias boon an eye-witness of what sho says, and, as will be noted, is emphatic in her declaration that in the comparatively small mining townslirip oi : Karangahako (one of tli2 dots in tlie Ohinemmi Licensing area) drunkenness is more general than ever it was in the days of open license. Not only is then* more, drunkenness amount, tin , adult population, b.:t it i.s assertctl 'by tho writer that boys who nnd ! never before tasted' strong drink, and husbands who were before l-Ivo introduction of No-liccnse atten x ,iv6 and affectionate men, arc to be .seen constantly suffering from the effects of stolen nips, which are secured at any price and consumed in a scrub dooauohery. This only bears out what we have over anil over ag;ini .stated—that No-license is not o<<ly a failure in soberisino; the people, but a menace to our private homes wherever the deadly death-dealing tbinp; is planted. The subjoined appeared in a northern contemporary: " Karangahake, "Monday, Dth October, Ml. " Dear Mr Editor,—Just a word about No-license. i have lived in KarangahaivO twelve years, and lmvo always voted for No-license, but J never wiil again. When -ho hofcels wore open you would see men drunk sometimes, but they are always drunk now. and not only men, bub boys of lb .and 17 lying in ;>!,e scrub drunk with bottles, of whisky beside them. Nearly every hufc is a pub, and they get whisky in c-ih\s and hide it in tho scrub and sell it for eight and nine shillings a bottle, and sometimes fifteen shillings and a pound. They arc watching the policeman at tho &\m<> time he i.s looking for thorn. If there twenty policemen here they wo.'J'J not catch them, for everybody is ready to warn them that the boooy is around. .1 can count no less t'.an thirteen places I could got liquor if 1 wanted 't. and there arc twice as many more. I remember to nave seen young men here that Mere husbands and good sons and decent every way; now they are driur.joit sots, faces as hard as iron, and look old and withered. Some of the stuff they sell is terrible, and some of it is all right, but where they would have a glass of beer in the old days they have pints of whisky now. So you can lix tin's up .or your paper.' It is all truth, no lies about, and plenty more as well, b:tt .1 am no good at writing letters, «> I will concliulo for the present i..y signing tnysel "A AYOKIUKP WIFE." The hona lidos of this letter is vouched for, and tine name of tho ""Worried \\ife" can bo supplied, hut not for publication.