TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 13

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

. «» PROMINENT INVERCARGILLITES INTERVIEWED. During the past fortnight a representative of the Temperance party has called on a number of prominent Invercargill business men, and has obtained their views on the results of No-license in that town for publication. THE BUILDING SOCIETY SECRETARY. Mr Jas. Brown, secretary of the Building Society, was one of the first seen. He said : "I am in a particularly good position to judge oi the effects of no-license on land values and building activity. You may use my name aa stating the distinct and ■well-considered opinioij that, not only has no-license not hindered the building activity and the rise in land values that has been so marked of late years in InvercarKiH, but that it has actually helped in both these regards. Of course, it ie impossible to prove or disprove the statement, but one can hold an opinion, and my opinion is strongly that we should not have been as well off as we are to-day in regard to bwth land values and building activity if we had not adopted no-license. I regard the absence of the legal sale of drink as of great advantage to any town." A COACHBUILDER WELL SATISFIED. •A coachbuilder provided a breezy interview. " Look at my yard," he said, pointing to a large number of vehicles in various stages-of repair or building ; " that does not look as though there were any depression in Invercargill. There is pelnty of work. My difficulty is to get suitable men - to do the work. I have a good many more hands now than I had in license times, and would employ more if I could get them of the right stamp. We are quite satisfied with no-license as a business proposition, and its success as a business proposition means th.it it increases family happiness by providing a better return for the money spent than if it had been wasted in alcoholio liquors." ' AN ENGINEER EMPHATIC. . Mr J. K. Jamieson is an old resident of Invercargill, and ie the proprietor of an engineering and ironmoulding foundry in that place. He was emphatic in his approval of the new condition of things, and eaid : " All thie talk about the depots doing as much harm as the old licensed bars is twaddle of the weakest description. Any person who uses his eyes and ears can see that it is not so, and that great benefits have resulted from the dosing of the open bar. - 1 maintain strongly that • the whole place is better and cleaner in every way, both from a business and a moral stand- _> point. Of course it is not perfection. Unless men alter very materially no law could bring -about perfection. However, comparing conditions now with what they were two years ago, we have great cause for thankfulness. In the circle with which I am best acquainted there seems to me a distinctly improved tone, both spiritually and morally." A DENTIST'S EXPERIENCE. A dentist put the matter very neatly. Said he, on being approached : " You can guess how I feel about it when I tell you that in the year before no-license I only paid 8s income tax, but last year I was called on to pay £♦. This is the sort of expense on© can bear with a certain amount of equanimity, but it was not one of the evilß the license party promi.<=j?d as a result of the * dry' experiment. Under no-license I find the volume of business greater, and many who used to be slow in paying now jpay all right. I have also got in a pood 1 deal of money that I had given up for lost. In my own case I am a moderate drinker, but have- practically ceased drinking aleoholio liquors since no-license came in. I was not fond enough of them to worry after them. My ease is typical of many others." A SOLICITOR HAS PROOF OF SUCCESS. One of the leading solicitors of the town, who is also a moderate drinker, replied to a question about bad debts as follows :—": — " A number of local firms regularly send me lists of outstanding debts to collect. In these I have formerly almost in■variably found the names of a number of persons, mainly of the middle class. These were nearly all in regular employment, earning in some cases as much as £5 a week. Apparently they used to waste their money on drink, and do not do so now as, since no-license, a large number of these chronic ' bad payers ' have permanently dropped off my list 6. If my experience is typical of the other solicitors, and I suppose it is, the new condition must be a great boon to business men, and must save them a good deal." GOVERNOR HANLY, OF INDIANA (U.S.), SPEAKS. In view of th© expected deluge of *' alleged evidence " obtained from the United States by the agent of the Liquor party, who has just been sent through that country (but which is apparently to be reserved until too late for testing by correspondence), the Dunedin United Temperance -Reform Council sent a number of letters to prominent' men in "th© States," ■who have peculiarly good opportunities of knowing the exact truth about the results of no-license, and asked • them whether, in their experience, the direful results predicted by the Liquor party had ever come to pass as a consequence of any place carrying no-license. Governor Hanly, U.S., was deemed a peculiarly suitable man to answer this question, as there are well over a million people in his State living under no-license by their own vote. Because of this great number of examples under his own jurisdiction, he knows all about the "results" in actual working. No Governor of an important State could make such statements as the following unless tho figures and actual facts of the case backed him up in every particular : — GOVERNOR HANLY' S REPLY. Executive Department, State of Indiana, . Indianapolis, December 2L- 1907. Dear Sirs, — In answer to your letter, permit me to say that in the no-license districts in the State of Indiana taxes are not 'higher,, nor is crime greater, nor the consumption of liquor greater, nor is there more lying and perjury or secret drunkenness than in districts where retail ' liquor establishments are licensed. On the other hand, quite the contrary is true. Municipal taxes are lighter, crime is less, consumption of liquor is less ; there is less lying and perjury, and less drunkenness than in licensed districts. In two years and a-half 753 out of a total of 1116 townshins Jn the State of

Indiana have inhibited the sale of intoxicants at retail as a beverage by remonstrance, and without doubt every condition referred to above has been improved thereby. Crime has decreased greatly throughout the State, and, although the law has been more strictly enforced in the last two years than ever before in the history of the State, arrest 6 have constantly decreased. — Very truly yours, (Signed) J. Frank Hanly, Gcnernor of the State of Indiana.