Cure for Drunkenness.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 75, 2 March 1885, Page 2

Cure for Drunkenness.

A correspondent of the Wellington Post propounds the following as a cure for drunkenness :— " Abolish all licenses and Custom duties, and it is done. If spirits were sold at their real value it would not pay to keep bars opeu to retail them.- Nobody would be^sb foolish as to give siypencu for a thimbleful at a bar when tho same would buy a bottle.-, fulatafruit shop. Poor people would then be m the same position as rich people, temperance* advocates, etc. They could all have their decanters, and be able to treat their friends at home • without making big* .holes m their 'pockets at a publichouse. T?o makeup tor the lost revenue— and all the pros'»nt import and export dutiestax the land, and nothing else. A land tax is the only fair tax. It would touch rich and poor exactly according to their rn^aiis. It would destroy monopoly and stimulate production and trade enormously. Great tracts of the" "best 'lands :in New Zealand now kept idle for speculation would be handed over to the cul-, tivators for its proper use ; wages would rise, and a great demand for labor would spring; up all over the colony. A country without a custom-house would attract capital m millions from all tho taxridden and tax-enrsed countries iri the world. As for the drunkards, the miserablo wretches who now spend every shilling m drink: would either reform quickly and enjoy their share of; the general prosperity, or, if too far gone for that, would quickly disappear m another way and be heard of no more."