THE PROHIBITION QUESTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1652, 8 March 1886, Page 2

THE PROHIBITION QUESTION.

Sife William Fox is nothing if not sanguine on the prohibition qnestioh. 1 Speaking at Wellington the other day he , saiif : — "Prohibition was beings car riecl into law m all the great countries m the globe. In Canada, with a population of 5,000,000, the people had.the right to $a:y;. that if the "majority of any county or district, even if that.majority were only jone vote; decided- m favor of'- tlie" proliibition, to sweep the drink shops away, and m fprty-seyen counties m Canada this had been done, and the same had j been! accomplished m ten states m America. The chairman then referred to what had been accomplished m many of the cities; ,and .towns of England m? the. same direction, notably m certain' districts m London, Birmingham, and Liverpool, m which i no liquor was per- / mitfted to besold. When Sir Wilfred Lawson 30 years ago, introduced his Perjmjssive Bill only 40 members of the 1 House of Commons supported him. Last |year he induced 248 members of the House to iay that it was the right' of the people to have the power to declare that local option should be the law of the land ; while after the last general eleotion m England Sir W. Lawson had a following of no less than 348 members, no fewer of whom than 248 had recently voted for the .extreme system of local option. In conclusion, Sir W. Fox said" that it was only the brewers arid- the publicans who refused to^see-in the facts he had referred ytdjlhafc^he signs i of, thA timesipointed out that prohibition would ere; long become the law of^ civilised nations. • , ? " •• ; ■ ' „-. 7 ; • ,i ; ;.: