PROHIBITION.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 39, 1 December 1911, Page 6

PROHIBITION.

Sir,—As a reader of "The Worker" ■I. <im glad to have an opportunity of having a saj- on the vexed question of prohibition. The existing license laws cannot be said to be British.; they are! 'brutish in the power they give to an; •unscrupulous trade. As Burns said, i ; 'Sobriety is the road to independence." if the drunkard and non-thinker spends

bis money unwisely, he has'not the wherewithal to hold out in time of trouble. The employers and capitalists know full well tha.'t a sober community can have what it likes and when, so many of them back the old customs in ox-der to keep the workers dependent. iVe will make small headway in any l'eform while we are so lukewarm. How nicely do ibhe would-be champions of liberty show on the eve of every election, mixing cocktails of Bible and whisky to catch the unwary, and appealing to all to strike out the bottom line, as if December would bring the millennium. Every good and true .Socialist should help to leave the world better than he found it. Do not heed he cooing of this old business, remembering we must work out our own salvation, and try to make the part of the world we are living in better and happier. To tins end we are called upon to top off this, branch, of private enter prise: by striking out the top line in , both papers.—l am, etc., Stratford. W. E. FORTEE,.

- Sir,—l have read in "The Worker" the various opinions on the liquor question. Now, Sir, the No-license Party is out to do the workers a great good ; that is, according to their views. I know prohibitionists who were drapers, butchers, bootmakers, farmers, and, to top it all, second-hand dealers —all out ho put down that curs© to the workers, "drink," and what is it for. What is it for ? Because of the poverty caused by drink, as they would have us believe. Or is it because the workers' wives would have a few more shillings to be robbed off by these swindlers_ (I beg pardon, salesmen), who to my mind are .a bigger curse to the country than drink. Sir, if this class of people want to do the workers good, why don't they start at home, and. not cruel them with large profits arkTihigh rents. One of the strongest advocates of the No-Kccnse party was a witness squatter in the shed hands' case at Palnierston.. This is another instance of the "good" they would do for the worker. Now we are out to fight exploiters and these people are exploiters and we can't fighthand in. hand with them, even on the liqiior question. If the workers of this country think something should be done regarding this great question let them join the N.Z.F.L. and get a hold of the wheels of production. Then, and not till then, will we be able to control the liquor traffic, and I hope every one of your readers will thoroughly weigh this question before going to the ballot box. —I am. etc., N M«isterton. BOD MAC.