THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1905. THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 194, 27 January 1905, Page 2

THE Kawhia Settler. FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1905. THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

Last week we had a lecture on Ternperance, or we should say Prohibition, , delivered in the Public Hall, Kawhia. | The arguments used were the kame . old ones, and undoubtedly of thein were good. We will ritit ueal with those that were not to our mind sound, but merely discuss the matter 1 on local grounds. Granting that the .< abuse of liquor is the root of ail crime, 1 that it causes poverty andthiknesa and all the ills that flesh is heir to, still the fault lies in the abuse, not the use, of alcoholic tiquors. We in Kawhia and the King Country generally suffer much from this abuse, but we must submit that this is not the fault of the residents in this proscribe district, nor is it that we are thoroughly abandoned and vicious. No ; it is because we suffer from an unjust law, from being treated as children or intellectually undeveloped creatures unable to judge for ourselves as to whether it is advisable to have license oi t no-license. The Government of this country go through the fQrm,and also to tbe expense, of asking us Whether we will have license or not; but this law says “ Whatever you decide, you shall not have a license.” Now, we will allow that it .is better not to have drir.k sold anywhere, but•; why say “ You may buy drink outside of the Rohi Potai but not inside that area ?•’ Let the sale of liquor be prohibited throughout the colony and we will bow to the decision'; but io be treated not only as children but as felons is too much. Kawhia being a osnkre to which mauy gravitate suffers more than almost any other place in the colony on account of this Prohibition. As we have eaid, we no voice in the matter; but having lihose amongst Ud, as there are in every community, who say thaHt .is necessary for them to have' a stimulant, these persons naturally try to obtain such, and wherever a demand is created a supply is. generally put forward. Thus we have sly-grog sellers in our midst. Had we the same laws in force here that are in force in other parts of tbe colony we would not have such a state of affairs. We contend that if Prohibition was carried by tbe voice of tbe people of the district there would be sellers ; if license were carried there would be no necessity. It is iniquitous that the cau.-e of this law being persistently broken should exist. Nor is 'conviction at any cost* tbe remedy. Give the residents of the King Country the same rights to say “ We 'will, or we will not, have licenses,”" or else stamp it out of all parts of tbe-colony at once. If it is a trade that does barm on this side of the Rjhi Potai it does harm on thp other, side equally—if Prohibition is not general throughout New Zealand it is useless. Let the Government try a modified Gothenburg system. To describe a suitable one would occupy too now, and it will require a specialarticle to expatiate fully on that subject. The fact exists that all Britishers hate injustice, whether from their fellows, their magistrates, or their law givers, and sooner or later resent it in a more or less forcible manner. Wo resent the injustice of the present liquor laws most bitterly, as arbitrary and impotent in doing good. When our law givers listen to petitions from Otago and the South with reference to the King Country, a place that not one in every five hundred signing their names ever saw or know anything about (except by hearsay), what can be expected but imbecile legislation.