The Hoitika Guardian TUESDAY, JUNE 27th, 1922. PROHIBITION

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1922, Page 2

The Hoitika Guardian TUESDAY, JUNE 27th, 1922. PROHIBITION

Bxkohe the end of the. year New Zealand will In? called upon again to decide the issue of prohibition. There will be other issues on the ballot paper, as at last voting, but the main issue will be whether the Dominion is to have licence or no license. By license tieie will be the authorised and regulated control of alcoholic liquors. By no license there will he the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquors. The country lias lia<l experience long enough now to understand what the licensed sale of alcoholic liquors means, and i" P l, rt of New Zealand there are territories nominally “dry” where some experience may be found of the operation of prohibition. But t.lic latter is not cJinplote for the reason that while, with, in certain boundaries, liquors may not' l>e sold, they may yet be legally iinported and consumed, so that really in such communities there is no real test of the effect of what might he describee} complete prohibition.* To seek some ImowHsu of wM totnl tlOT! TflKdh! find 1*91? it uffr-ds pommil- V

iiitics within the coniines of the country. there is the very outstanding *'<- ample of the United States of America. There are ntatiy conflicting reports in regard to the result,* of prohibition in j America, and the full and complete , story from an impartial mind would bo welcomed. But. from the mass of available mutter to be rend and discussed, there appears to lie a concensus of feeling that prohibition is not by ally means a success, either in the enforcement of 11011-liquor consumption, itor in the ultimate result, the moral effect oii the niitibna! character. As to the first aspect, the latest and to some extent the most official announcement. we have read—is the cabled statement last week of the I’.S. Secretary of War, Speaking in the city of Philadelphia Mi' Week pronounced in favor of a modification of the prohibition law. He stated that flic people want lioor ami light wines and he attributed the widespreading unrest in America to-day to the effect of pi nhihiition, That is very wholesale condemnation As tti the second point, there caii be iu> doubt as to the. ill-effects foil owing In the tnliti of prohibition by breaches of the law. The law is being defied in a wholesale manner, by the system of “bootlegging.” B'd worst of all is tile introduction of coflcdcthins to take the place of alcoholic liquors. This vile trade is undermining the nation, driving people to madness and i- a shocking exposure of the ill-effects of man made laws where natural cravings are denied. 11l addition there is an extraordinary wave of crime passing over the United States of late, TTow far that, is attributable to the causes and effect prohhiiton the statists have not yet determined, Iml the distressing fact is there that serious crime has grown apace since prohibitory laws affecting the consumption of alcoholic liquors have been in force. No doubt much can be said in faVotll* of prohibition in America. The closing of the saloons was a material victory--but that is a phase ('illy and indicates faulty administration in till' times of license. It was a notorious fact that “graft” (or bribery) was the lever to keep many of the illfamed saloons open. That was a defect of the administration. It could have been overcome by a less sweeping charge than the enforcement of prohibition. In New Zealand we have licensed houses well regulated and well inspected. The evils which cried allowed in the United States are not 'manifest here. This I'oulltl'.v sets a very good patterif with its licensing taws and for that reason iii particular there seems no occasion for straight out prohibition.