License Meeting at Waihou.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42797, 26 October 1905, Page 3

License Meeting at Waihou.

iRESSBY ME JOHN FIELD,

►Wuesday evening Mr John Field Ires'SeS a well attended meeting in public Hall, Waihou, on the sub|of k< Ashburton under No-license.” tr Field said that when No-license I carijiu at Ashburton there were pusher of rumours that the town llfi'go to the dogs and become a [e village. luring' the last complete year of i [nse (1902) the convictions for hkenness in Ashburton numbered If For the first complete year under [license (1904) the number was iced to 23. most of which came from lide the electoiate. peaking at a banquet at Ashburton [February 4th, Mr Davies, the ror (an ex publican of 21 years’ Iding) said: “ Since the advent of license the Council lost £360 a ty previously derived from license ,(but notwithstanding this the •draft at the hank had been re--3d.”

IHomeone who evidently know very ;:He about Ashburton had stated that take anyone to the top of a hill and point: out the only jHsein Ashburton that did not sell [H?. The worthlessness of this as|Hk>n was proved by the fact that [[Be were no hifis at Ashburton, the IHrict being perfectly flat for miles IHuid. A special commissioner had |Hi sent to Ashburton by the Lyttleto try and find out anything No-license, but at last [Hvas obliged to admit that the town H 'certainly improved under NoH and hoodlums lounging in tho Hts, and oven the homes had imHed. No-license said Mr Field, H only got by : trying very hard: Ht be frightened and you will win, H young people w ho were coming on Hd always be counted upon. In Hburton eighty per cent of the young ■ were favourable 10 No-license but

Hi it not for the women No-license Hid never be carried The women ■w the evil better than men do. Hikers grumble that their wives Hd money at the draper’s, but where H woman spent too much at the Hier’s, there were ninety-cine men H guzzled their whole earnings in Hk, and this made many a woman H the shoe pinch badly. Hfr Field related how aa Ashburton H got so disgusted with her husband, ■ spent all his spare time at the ■ lie house, that one evening she c the tea cloth and other things, o and snreading the cloth on the said “ Mr B irman, I want to have with my tyusband, and as he .i* er at h >rae I th "light I w >uld come have it here with him.” This on bad made a better man of, ihf hand. who. never wen'into an hotei ing the next twenty years. In most ts of the colony, said Mr Field, they it men up when they got drunk, : iD No-license districts they shut the drink and let the men go free. George Andrews, Borough Counprof Ashburton, related he went to some work at ihe Police Sta'ion ; arriving he found the door of the sk-up open, the place carpeted and •nished and a constable aittiug at a )le writing. On asking what it lant, he was told that for four months ere had not been a single prisoner, >ilst under License there had never en a clear month without a prisoner. Mr Field said his hearers would be ad to hear that there wore a lot of •ohibltion policemen in New Zealand, number of Ashburton ladies said at theii boys who used to stay out te at night drinking, now came in good time, and were a joy to them. ie river at Ashburton has always aimed the lives of a few when under ie influence of liquor, but under No ense for two years there had not 3eh a Bingle case of drowning in that ver.

Mr Gy W. Leadluy, chairman of the aimers’ Union, says : “ The general ade of the place is on sounder lines, here has been quite a boom in theijiilding trade.” He also says “I aye been present at many social motions, banquets etc., where there ere no intoxicants aod everything assed off as enjoyable as ever.” The balance sheet of the Gas Com any shows a good year, paying 8 per ent dividend and carrying forward 1500. In the Building Society the tcrease of deposits over that with rawn during a year under License, r as £9.887 ; under No license it was 124,990. . There is not an empty shop at pr< sent Q Ashburton. B isiness pe< p!e are jetting their debts paid and some are j mlarging their premises and npw ihops are in course of creed, n. The lotels are being carried on as b ifore, ninus the bars, aul are doing, well as warding hous f. ' Mr Field said that No-licens-ers h id ' aot the least intention of huiting the publican, but th°y did not want the open bars to run to the detriment of the youths of the colony. If public opinion was not going to give a license then thh publicans w uld have to go to work like other people. D.ink, said Mr Field is a b »r to heal h, wealth and prosperity, and leads the way to prison bars, and he appealed to all to make-a clean path for the little childrens’ sake, by voting No-license. The Ladies’ Charitable Aid Society in said Mr Field, had now f tactically nothing to do ; their cup oisirds were full, as during eighteen months not a solit. ry woman had been to ask for garments. They were now getting rid of the < 1 ithing by sending it to Christchurch, a licensed town. With regard to >.to the Borough finance. During the last year of License, the Ashburton rates were raised, from Is 6d to 2s in the £; to meet certain expenses. After one year of No-license they reverted to Is 6d and in addition the Council paid off JJ9OO of an overdraft. At the close of the mooting, Mr Blackmore moved a hearty vote of /thanks to Mr Field : this was seconded by Mr J. Stanley, and carried with acclamation. A similar compliment to Mr Wilson, who presided, b:ought /the meeting t > a closer