PROHIBITION.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 17 October 1918, Page 2

PROHIBITION.

To the Editor.

SIR,—In your issue of September 19th there appeared an article by your Auckland correspondent critising the statements of the Prohibitionists, and making allegations of the imperfect working of Prohibition in U.S.A. It is hardly necessary to point out to your intelligent readers that there is always the likelihood of a certain amount of friction in the case of any drastic reform. But it is worthy of note that over half the total area and over half the population of U.S.A. are living under Prohibition today, and after December Ist brewing is to cease entirely. Canada, with the exception of part of Quebec, is already under Prohibition, and all Quebec is to go dry on May Ist. The Prime Minister of Canada has stated that Prohibition has been in force in eight out of nine provinces sufficiently long to realise and confirm expectations of great benefits, moral, commercial and industrial, consequent upon its enforcement. The allegation of sly-grog in the form of "bootlegging" and "lighthouses" is exaggerated, and will be dismissed by intelligent people as trivial; the remedy for this and similar offences is to make ■the punishment sufficiently severe to act as a deterrent. The statement that there were a great number of arrests for drunkeness in Seattle during the first six mouths of Prohibition need not cause any concern when it is remembered that the law allowed people to lay in a stock oj liquor, and that when Prohibition came into force drunkenness became an offence and men who previously would not have been noticed were arrested. The most significant fact about Seattle is that the Editor of the Seattle Times to use his own words, " did his d— best to defeat prohibition," but after 6-months of it was so satisfied with the results that he wrote a leading article cancelling ali his previous statements and declaring his approval of Prohibition and his determination to do his utmost to further the reform. Space . forbids me giving any but the briefest quotations, but much more is available. Every Governor of Kansas for over 20 years has declared Prohibition a great success, and that the people of Kansas desire that the people of N.Z. should know the truth of Kansas under Prohibition, and drawn their own conclusions.—l am, etc.,

J. A. Hughes.