A COMPLETE ANSWER

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1925, Page 1

A COMPLETE ANSWER

VO I 'lt HOYS CHANCE. By WALTER ,1. A HAMS. (Of the Jloniiluln Advertiser; Accredited Correspondent with the United States Fleet, on its recent, visit lo New Zealand.) "Prohibition will give your Imy a chance." reads the wording on the hillhoards and hoardings.

It will indeed. It will give him a chance lo lie a sly drinker, a sneak, and perhaps a bootlegger, li wilt give him a disrespect for law and even!ually for bis country. It will, perhaps, bring about the condition which prevails in America to-day where millions arc spent on enforcement methods and billions on bootleg liquor.

It. will convince him Ilia! laws—which ho has always heard tire henctieial —can also he silly. Later he will find that laws can well be broken. From this discovery to actual lawbreaking is but a short step. It will give hitn a chance lo slyly procure and stealthily drink vile mixnres of an alcoholic nature: and will give him a chance to he blinded by rotten liquor. fl will- if lie is an enterprising youth -give him a chance to operate a fast, armoured heat, and run liquor ashore in one of the ninny coves which go io make New Zealand's coastline a potential paradise for bootleggers. 11 will give him a chance t" see the delectable spectacle of "sridHaw” activity. He will have a chance In see Prohibition agents, poll' e. revenue and customs men, and private agencies discomfited by the h>i I logo.o', and here's the point the private citizen. It will bestow the priceless privilege of sneakishuess and the great Iron of hypocrisy upon him. It will give him a chance to see otherwise law-abiding citizens delightedly violating a law destined lo deprive them of an mliureni right the right of living a- they choose. || will pel mil him to read ill t lie dailv newpapors of a eons! antl.v growing list of scandal', crimes, and nasty episodes developing out of law violations. It will give him a chance l" purehaso inferior liquors at an exorbitant price, and to pay for that liquor n o only in money hut in self respect. It\ will give him a chance to learn deceit, distrust of his own laws, and disrespect lor eonsi t uted authority. If you doubt that he will have these chalices read the daily press ol America: remember that, these are iu-t lue disclosed instances, and not the hundreds of thousands of undiscovered violations of tarious law- tlial take place dailv in America." The record ol New Zealand'.. lee., all over the' world is sullicioiil prool that your hoy’s chance under Coutimueue is the tiesl chance he could possibly have.—