N.Z. ALLIANCE ACCEPTS LIQUOR CHALLENGE.

Shannon News, 20 October 1922, Page 3

N.Z. ALLIANCE ACCEPTS LIQUOR CHALLENGE.

i The liquor traffic, in the Evening Post of October 11, and in other papers, challenges the New Zealand'Alliance to produce “any evidence that the, American people have ever voted or had an opportunity of voting upon the question of National Prohibition.” WHAT ABOUT THE ALLIANCE’S | CHALLENGE? The Alliance has repeatedly challenged the New Zealand liquor traffic to produce figures showing that the Customs and Excise revenue from the traffic has ever yielded 500,000 per annum to the Treasury. The liquor trade has never taken up . that challenge. The Government return tabled in the House on September 5 shows that the largest amount produced by the liquor traffic in the way of revenue >vas in the year ended March 31, 1922, when it was £1,359,856. For the first six months of this fiscal year, April l to September 30, 1922, the Government Comptroller of Customs states that total revenue from imported spirits, beer, 'stout, and wines, and Excise from New Zeaalnd beer to be £642,160. If it is the same for the next six months, the year will produce £1,284,320, which is £75,500 less than last year, although the duties and Excise have been doubled as compared with last year. And it is just about half of what the liquor traffic claims it yields in revenue. Who Put, it There?—President Harding of the U.S.A., said on July 4 last, at Marion, Ohio: “The eighteenth amendment denies to a minority a fancied sense of personal liberty, but the amendment is the will of America, and must be sustained by the Government and public opinion.” Chief 7us tiee W. H. Talk of the U.S.A., is on record that th(T amendment is an “overwhelming constitutional expression of the people.” Although attacked from every conceivagle angle by the liquor interests, the amendment has, by the U.S. Supreme Court, been declared again and again to be absolutely valid. Thei amendment is there because t(he people put it there.

A Nation-wide Vote is Now On. — After three years of National Prohibition, after three! years of open and underground propaganda by. the liquor traffic, after three years of organised attempts, to break down and discredit the Prohibition law, after three

years ol liquor hired newspaper propaganda alleging wholesale crime, corruption, drug and dope taking, immorality and for law, after

three years of intense effort by every corrupt and contemptible agency in, the U.S.A. to mislead the people, the people (have been and are voting on

the dominating issue of whethe.r or not they wish the Prohibition law' modified. More than thirty-two organisations have been, and are, in operation striving to get the people to nominate for Congress “beer and light

Avine” candidates. What is the result? _ Latest advices shoAv that twentythree States have, by popular vote, nominated their candidates; these tAventy-threei Sitaites have a total population of over 55,500,000 —that is to say .more than half the entire population of the U.S.A. And here is the result, after all this frantic effort on the part of ' the Avets—GongressI men nominated drys 182, wets 38— ; that is to say, over 82 per cent of the | pieoplje’s representatives chosen this in those States are* dry. No people in the world are quicker to scrap a failure than the Americans. Would they be voting in such an overAvhelming way to* retain Prohij bition if it AVas a failure, if it proj duced the horrors the liquor party pretends it hoes? Could Sir John I Foster Fraser say, as he has said: j “You do!; not hear about the one hundred millions of Americans Avho Ido not break the law” ? Here is the | opportunity of voting on National I Prohibition—there is the result.

j Another Challienge.—Now, then, j here is another challenge to the NeA\ ?

. Zealand liquor traffic. The ■ liquor j traffic is challenged to produce any evidence that justifies it in advertising broadcast that if Prohibition is carried the moderate drinkers in New Zealand are by thousands going , to become "bandits, cut-throats, robbers, drug fiends and dope drinkers. It is challenged to substantiate its disgusting insinuation that if Prohi- ■ bition is carried in New Zealand, , women not now in the habit of frequenting hotel bars Avill take, to drinkfhg and become immoral and sly grog sellers. It is challenged to produce the authority for its statement that no NeAV Zealand boy is at present subject to the temptation of indulgence fit ,a|ll in strong drink until he is twenty-one years of age—j the Police Report, for 1921 containj ing a record of 113 prosecutions of licensees for serving intoxicants to persons under 21 years of age. The liquor traffic is further .challenged io disclose just, how much extra net profit is made by charging 2/6 extra on every bottle of spirits on the ground of increased duties, AAfiien it has not paid that increased duty. When the liquor traffic has fully replied to this further challenge, the ' N.Z. Alliance will be ready to hand out a few more.—N.Z. Alliance Publicity. (71)