CROYDON ROAD AFFAIRS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1919, Page 6

CROYDON ROAD AFFAIRS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —Kindly give me space for a few more lines re the above. I am sorry I cannot comply with 'Onlooker's" suggestion that I should furnish a complete list of the helpers during the epidemic. May I say the suggestion is so utterly ridiculous that it can only be compared with the mind that conceived it.

Reading "Onlooker's" letter, one would think he was anxious to see the end of what he i 3 pleased to call the controversy. Well, then, if that is so, why in 1 the name of goodness is he trying to prolong it by entering into it himself? I think 'I have given names enough to show who gave most help. Perhaps "Onlooker" wants to know who did not help. Well, then, he must go somewhere else for the information. Let me t?ll ''Onlooker" that he and those who think with him are on the wrong track. Mone of those people I named in my first letter have had anything to do with the writing of these letters, neither do they know who the writer is, I have heard casually that the angTy ones are blaming those people.—l am, etc., LOVER OF JUSTICE. Waipuku, January 6-

AMERICA AND PROHIBITION.

To the Editor.

Sir, —By the recent mail from America s the news is coming to hand of the re- f suits of the voting on November 5 all 1 over the United States. The voting was f not only for the election of Governors, t senators, and officials generally, but, so ( fai - as this country is interested, on i various questions concerning the liquor t trade, prohibition, stricter enforcement, s etc. Very little of this news reached i New Zealanders by cable message. About ( the only thing cabled was the fact that i California, rejected prohibition. This is i true, but the voting records show an 1 advance of prohibition sentiment not- i withstanding, and, moreover, a failure i in one part must be looked at only alongside the results in other parts of tic Union- Here are a few gleanings from the recent mail matter: —Four more States have gone dry—Ohio, Florida, Nevada, and Wyoming—making a total of 32 dry States. Perhaps the best evidence that America gives of tlie success of prohibition is the course of events, and' the results of the voting in the State of Washington. This is the third time that a vote has been taken in this State within four years, and each • time the people have approved of the prohibition law. In November last that approval was expressed by 75 per cent, of the votes cast. The law now is made still more strict, and enforcement more certain. But there is better new's still from America for prohibitionists in New Zealand, in fact for all, did they but know it. It will be remembered that in December, 191'7, the Congress passed a resolution to so amend the National Constitution as to prohibit the manufacture, sale, or importation for sale of all alcoholic liquors, with certain exceptions. 'This resolution does not take effect until it has been ratified by three"fourths of the State Legislatures—that is, it must he ratified Iby 38 States. , Nearly all of the State Legislatures meet • biennially, and most of them in Janu- • ary, 'l9lO- Last year 14 States ratified I the prohibition resolution, and there are i yet 23 prohibition States that have not ; voted on the question, and these may • safely' be reckoned on to ratify also, : which makes up 37 States—one more tlian the Constitution demands for any , amendment. Added to all this, there rei mains the fact that at the last elections > several wet States elected Legislatures ■■ that will ratify; hence it may be reck--1 oned as quite'certain that during this > year - the prohibition amendment to the Constitution "will take effect, and the 7 whole trade in alcoholic liquors will be " abolished throughout that great Kepub- '' lie, and 1920 will see the last drinking s&loon shut up for ever. In the rneanB time, the war-time prohibition, enacted 8 by Congress, comes into force early this 3'ear; so it will foe a complete and cons' tinuous prohibition for the whole counc trv. All this good news from America T .should inspire New Zealanders to do ' itheir utmost for the abolition of the drink■ trade in 1 New Zealand on.the 10th *' .day of April next —I am, etc., P ' G.HiM.