ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 65, 7 September 1911, Page 3

ALCOHOLOGY.

; SERGEANT STAGPOOLE. OF OAMARU, ON NO-LTCEXSE. / | •(Published by Arrangement.) During June, Messrs. G. I!. Nicholls and E. J. I<\ King called at Oamaru and Asblnirtoii seeking interviews with the leading citizens upon the actual results of no-license. The sergeant of police, in charge of the Oamaru district, spoke freely of the advantages of the "dry" law, and said:—• "The new clauses of the Licensing Act have been exceedingly beneficial. They have aided the enforcement of the law very greatly. Coming from Pahnerston North (which is under license, and where excessive drinking is unfortunately common) to Oamaru, the contrast in police duties is wonderful. Here we have very little trouble with helpless and unpleasant drunkards. The bulk of tlffc persons who are arrested for drunkenness should not be charged against nolicense in Oamaru, as their arrest takes place cither at the station returning from licensed districts or on their way from the station to the town. I do not think that there were fen arrests for drunkenness last year in >vhich the offence had 'been caused by liquor consumed or bought in Oainani. '"The most notorious sly grog seller we have was also a sly grog seller in license days. It is easier to stamp out sly grog selling in a no-license than in a license area. In "dry" towns sly grog sellers have to be so exceedingly careful, and sell to such a limited circle, that the amount consumed is very small. "A good deal of drink is legally brought here, but its import is confined to a limited circle of people whose names recur again and again. Except for small quantities, which may be brought in without registration, ail the i liquors imported must be registered by the clerk of the court. The number of people in our licensing district is over 13,000, and f feel sure that the number of different names recurring is only between three and four hundred, certainly not more than four hundred.

"The quantity imported is also a diminishing one, being less last year than the year before. All the liquor that came in for Christmas week last year for that 13,000 people would only have been sufficient for the Xmas evening's business for one licensed bar. I have never' seen a keg party and have been here now more than a year, and have kept my eyes open. I do not say there are no keg parties, but I. have never seen one. They are certainty not numerous, Or I would have seen them. '

"From a police point of view, give me no-license-every time. The town is clean, and there is not a disorderly woman here —I think the use of liquor is an indispensible adjunct to 'that business."

THE CROWN SOLICITOR GIVES . EVIDENCE. Mr. A. G. Creagh, Crown Solicitor, of Oamaru, said: "I am satisfied that no-license almost entirely prevents the formation of the drink habit by the younger generation. The question of the making of new drunkards is the central point of the problem. If we fail here we fail everywhere; if we succeed here, we eventually succeed even-where. Emphatically, so far as I can see and hear, a new crop of drunkards is hot being manufactured in this no-license district. The drinking is now almost confined to a comparatively small section, whose appetite for alcohol was roused in license days and who continue the habit. With tiic passing of these, the drinking circle will become a very small one indeed. "With regard to crime, there has been a marked diminution in the district. As Crown Prosecutor, my duties are nowvery light, and there is a striking contrast between the present state of things and that ruling prior to no-licens'e. Those offences usually having their origin in drink are almost entirely absent."