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Hokitika Guardian, 19 October 1928, Page 4

This Licensing Poll which is set down for decision coi iem pa raneousl y with the General Election will doubtless 'be brought to the minds of the voters very prominently during the intervening period. The poll recurs every three years. It will be recalled there was an attempt at further tion in the recent session, but the measure was lost at the final reading in the House. The figures for the past three polls are interesting when the separate issues are studied side bv side: *

1919 1922 1925 Continuance 241251 282,669 299,590 State Control 32,261 35,727 56,037 Prohibition 270,250 300,791 319,450

It will be seen that over the period there has been ,in the aggregate quite an increasing volume of support against prohibition. It would appear that one of the contributing causes to this result is the experience -of the United States. There are many' stories current about the conditions under which liquor is obtainable there, and the lengths to which people- go to evade the law. Above all, there is the serious record of deaths year by year, following the consumption of vile concoctions to take the place of sound liquor. The best that can he said of the United States is that the open saloon has gone, hut in parting with the extreme conditions which' the saloon trade has created in America, something perhaps worse has taken its place. It seems a pity that America did not attempt regulation rather than prohibition but with the bribery extant among those responsible for the law, there was a demand to wipe the trade out altogether. That has proved an impossibility, To a great extent it has been driven underground with conditions more ill than ever. Where ii is not underground the law is flouted more or less openly, and the conditions prevailing have 'brought, the whole system into contempt. What is happening here in so many ways is provinr a lesson to the world, and it seems safe to say the experieoe of America with so-called prohibition, is the greatest object lesson to the onlooking world where it is being realised that there are more difficulties about enforcement than can he reasonably contemplated at the outset. Another great factor affecting prohibition, is the financial one, and the effect of the trade dislocation. There is likewise the broad effect on an isolated country such as New Zealand, whether New Zealand, would not he more isolated and ignored than ever if it 'attempted to fence off the liquor trade. The rights of the individual as regards freedom of action is another point. Indeed there are many more as the position is probed by those who study the main issue seriously and dispassionately.