TEMPERANCE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42775, 7 September 1905, Page 1

TEMPERANCE.

(Bt Bifobuir.) 11 do aotsay. tlmf |ly-gtog is unknown. Indeed, IWai amply canyj&ced that in »om denote it pretty ©%- under its worst aspects, and in districts .where it : is. most difficult: to “c6pe r witM it, it bears ne giran of the lawless frontier of pudf less is it hurtful .as license is m, say, the districta Wmediately adjoining Auckland. In towns such as Ashburton, Bdclutha and Gore, the drunkard is almost unknown. The evidence I got on thisksub*ject from orie man who himself had objections to raise against No license without compensation—l say this man’s evidence was that “ a solitary f drunk ’ might possibly be seen where a hundred were seen before.” : '<- r ;■ : j I found business good every* : where.. In some districts it was bpmg diverted: into other chan•> but in the bulk it was better ; -e^w^^/T)^^# proved business was^pefrhapstti) bht clearly No-license ruined the place, ) On; the con-

trary,' iia induenc^wa^i^ess- v ed in consequently in city and increased production.^; Accommodation for travellers - was quiteequal $6 anything ! /T' w have experienced;,ln; similar size and importance. ■■■?*•&?■} took ing this feature of the Prohibition tpwns. I; ;do not , Jmow • how much No license has-had' ? to do with hesitation in sayings that dinner furhished M thef Olihtbft' r railway refreshment room is the best that can be had at any - railway refreshment room in New Zealand.;?" Indeed, the comparison does , but r scant

justice. The advantage of No license in the “ almost entire absence of crime and offences ” was very striking. V If I dwiithe sly grog business, which is being fostered by “ the trade ” from the out* side of the Prohibition' districts ' —I say,, excluding this rabidly diminishing Wickedness, crimes are practically upknown.. ; Be member, I am telling of things as;l fopnd them-i,; t “Viriienivi visited Ashburton police station I found . that. the v cells were empty, and that they had been literally without an oocupant for 50 days. In that interval thousands of people had visited the Agricultural Shoyr, without producing, as far as I could learn, a single ‘ iriink.” ‘ i or one disorder ly person. Alinost, if t not quite the same thing eould be said of Gore and although the latter, being on.. the border of an electorate which is under ; license, is not so favourably situated. ' Even among the few present opponents of No license there"was ath finkful v admission that the place was t ‘‘free from the cursed business of shout* . '<•■ ■■'> - •'% t» . '.U ipg.