CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 141, 9 November 1914, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

xo.licex.sk. To the Editor, I ■Sir, -I do not propose to touch upon: the personal matter.-; contained in the letters which have lately appeared in your paper on the above, but with your permission I wish to comment upon some other phases of the subject in the hope that many hitherto cureless electors may be induced to think seriously before easting their vote. Underlying all that the prohibitionist, party say and write is the assumption! that every opponent is either a knave or a fool. As 50 per cent, of the population must be included in this cat~-j gory, the implication is an absurdity, as is equally so the contention that those who vote against Ko-lieense. must be. interested in the liquor trade. "Civis," like all his class, speaks of the suffering wrought by drink, but the. vital iioint in the question, viz., will prohibition TU'ohibjt? remained unproved.

Those who have not resided ill a dry area know nothing about it, ami the evidence of tlios.' who hisvi> is us contradictory, that no im!>i;uw<l p.-vson can form a definite opinion on the subject. hi regard to Dominion prohibition, o»r position places ore#l difficulties in the way of mtecr-ssftil experiment of this kind. 'There are hundreds of bays and inlets on our shores i where contraband could be landed, in spite of all the revenue cutters and ex | cise officers we could maintain, and the large profits would attract every adventurous spirit sailing the Pacific. ' Then, a«ain, a refusal of a majority of the public to regard the evasion of tin; law as a crime in these, cases is a factor worth consid' rip.;; in this connection, for deny it who may, it is generally recognised that it is a question affecting only man am: I.is Maker with which the law had not !jinir to do. Prohibition embodies a principle against which our ancestors hove struggled anil fuu;rht for cip.iit hundred years. It lighted the fires of inrpiisition. It is the doctrine of brute force a]lpl'cd to

•ruin's conscience, which never did and neve" wil! prevail. If any doubt it, let him mark the 'in'opance. imputicuce r,' opposition, and contcmplnons disregard of their opponents' feeibiKs nnd opinions, attitude of mind, which differs only in deface from that of the German of to-dav.—l ar.i, etc., J. M..T. TTARKER, 'Lemon Street, New Plymouth.