MASTERTON UNDER NOLICENSE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1592, 27 July 1916, Page 2

MASTERTON UNDER NOLICENSE.

The following is the general results of the Alanawatu Daily Times’ representative's personal investigations of Alasterton under NoLicense. A series of four articles appeared in the Times this week, from the last of which we take the following, which appeared to-day: “The general results of my investigations into No-liceuse and its effects as seen at the present day in Alasterton, may be summarised thus:

"1. It has resulted in the decrease in the use of alcohol to about onefonrlh of the average per head in tin l Dominion.

“2. There is an unquestionably steep decrease in all offences against the law. “3. The town is just now in a higher state of solid prosperity than ever before in its history. Once it had settled down after the first shock of change, progress has been steady and substantial. “4. The accommodation for the travelling public has not been adversely affected.

“5. The slygrog trade is not large, and is steadily on the wane. "(i As no organised effort has been made to provide congregating places to Lake tlie place of the bars, (he town lucks something of bright-, ness and of cheer.

“7. The townships of the neighbouring license area have not beneiited in any way as a result of NoJieeu.se in Alasterton.

“These conclusions are the plain truth, and are the result of an investigation conducted with all the impartiality that 1 could bring to bear on my task. JVly bias certainly did not lie at the outset towards the No-lieeuse side. 1 have never been a teetotaller, and so far have never voted Prohibition. I dislike and distrust the motives of that section of the No-liceuse party who are in the movement mostly with the obvious hope that the hotel takings will be diverted to their businesses. 1 believe that the only true measure of human progress is the growth, of human fellowship, and there is something coldly Jacking in that respect among the leaders of the No-i license campaign. 1 iind more beau-i ty in a faultless three-year-old thoroughbred than in the most perfect rose in a church garden, and the spectacle of good horses fighting in the firing line at the finish of a mile handicap gives me more intensity of enjoyment than any other sight on earth. X can claim therefore that 1 must not be credited with any party feelings when I set out on my quest. I have set ouf the facts exactly as X found themand precisely as they me.”