THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1919, Page 5

THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

ADDRESS BY REV. JOHN DAWSON.

There was a fair attendance at tin: Good Templar Hall last night, wh*n the Rev. John Dawson, general drgufawr for the New 2caland Alliance, gave aft r address on the question of prohibition. The clmir was taken by Mr. C. B. Silk ringer, who ..referred to Mr. Dawwat** recent visit to America, and laid In hftd come back more convinced than ever that prohibition was the only solution of ill* liquor problem.

Mr. Dawson commenced . b 7 maJdag some references to tho address of Mr.' Armstrong in New Plymouth, and the campaign of the Moderate League, who, he said, seemed out to preserve the liqndr trade, either in itg present form or ai a State enterprise. He freely acknowledged that the Moderate League wa* not a branch of the Prohibition But 7, but was not so sure that it had no relation to the Liquor Party. Failing on to what had been said to the effect that there was little chance of Prohibitioß ever being carried in New Zealand, Mr. Dawson Baid the liquor traffic wmdd never be safe until it was dad. Be predicted final victory for the Prohibition Party. If the reform was not carried this year—though he believed it would be—it would be carried a% a future poll. The final fight on the question would bring victory to the Prohibitionists. The question of State purchaae and control of the traffic was dealt with at. some length, but the speaker laid tlmt even if the State did take control it would not alter the character of the business, which must have men and women to dcgTade if it was to be canted on as a financial success. Rather than that the country should invest its money in a business that was going down, the speaker suggested that the money should be put to the purpose of completing railways, hydro-electric power development, roadmaking, and developing the real resources of the country. In speaking of the liquor bnsineM in America and Canada, Mr. Dawaon Mid the leading citizens of these countries were out to abolish 'foooze." root and branch, from their great countries. He stated that a world's league against alcohol had been formed, with a motto: "A dry world in 1930." He went to America to investigate, and looked at everything with a. view to its suitability for application to the Dominion of Sew Zealand. O? the nine provinces in Canada eight '-ere now dry, the wet one being Qneb.'c. Ontario was dry by Act of Parliament, but the other seven by popular vote. A vote was to be taken in Ontario at an early date, and it was expected Ontario would remain dry by tli» will of the people. In the United States there were 32 States that were prohibition areas by popular vote. Referring to America, the speaker said that directly she entered the war ahe made it illegal to manufacture whisky. She also made it illegal for alcoholie liquorc 1o bo cold within five miles of a military camp, and placed restrictions on the trade, in order to make their war • effort as complete and efficient as possible. He prophesied that from the experience of prohibition, whether as a war measure or as a measure brought about by popular vote. America would never go lmek to the "booze'* business. He paid a compliment to the work of the W CT.U., who had secured that the science of alcohol should be taught in the schools of th fi States that had gone dry. The working people of America had benefited by prohibition, and, they were waking up to appreciate tfie advantages of the reform.

In the course of giving some evidence from leading citizens as to the advantages of prohibition, Mr. Dawson Mid that a hotelkeeper in Seattle had told him that better business was being done since the abolition of liquor than wa« the case before. In Detroit he tu told there wa« not a section of the community that was dissatisfied with the results of prohibition. That was the opinion of tho editor of the leading newspaper, who said that so long M lie had an influence through his paper it would be used to preserve the dry regime. In regard to the matter of whether the dry States had ever had an opportunity of voting the "booze" in again, the speaker gave several instance* of votes taken in 1914- and again in 1016, in which the majorities for prohibition increased by thousands of vote*. In Arizona the increase in the majority was from 3144 to 12,000; in Colorado, from 11,(WO to 85.70?; and others showed still larger increases.

Mr. Dawson concluded Ly telling of how American brewers were leaving the State? for other countries like Mexico, China, and Japan, to foist their traffio on the helpless people of those countries, and said an emphatic protest would be made against such action. He complimented Taranaki on the pnrt taken in the past in the gTeat fight, and urged that the present opportunity of sweeping the traffic' away on a democratic basis should be taken, and the world-dry movement helped on. (Applause.) A question was asked as to how the States that carried prohibition made up the deficiency in the revenue, and Mr. Dawson said that did not trouble the Americans. Thij opinion of financiers there was that they got so much additional revenue from other sources that they did not miss the liquor revenue. He asked when people would realise that it was not the brewer who paid the revenue to the State but the people who drank the beer.

No further questions were asked, and votes of thanks to the speaker and the chairman were carried in the uaual manner.