THE SUCCESS OF NO-LICENSE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3025, 23 October 1908, Page 6

THE SUCCESS OF NO-LICENSE.

JUDGED BY ACTUAL RESULTS

The No-License Hand-book is responsible for the statement that the returns of the Ashburton Police Court furnish an unanswerable argument in favour of No-Licer,se. In the same work it is further stated that the growth of the town since 1902 has been steady and uninterrupted, and that Ashburton is in as sound a position commercially to-day as at any period in its history. How far from the real truth thtse statements are will be apparent from a comparison of 1902—the last complete year of license —with last year. CRIME IN ASHBURTON. In 1902 the total charges laid in the Police Court numbered 309; last jear they had increased to 316. In 1902 the offences relating to liquor were 93; in 1907 they numbered 103, made up as follows: Drunkenness 44 Selling liquor without a license 22 Prohibited persons procuring liquor 5 Disorderly conduct while drunk 1 Keeping liquor for sale 4 Failing to notify vendor under Licensing Act 2 Failing to notify Clerk of Court 6 Failure to label package of liquor 4 Failing to give name and address when ordering liquor 3 Piocuring liquor for prohibited person 3 Found in premises when sly-grog search-warrant executed 9 Total 103 Thus the only answerable argument that Ashburton can furnish in i favour of No-License is an increase i in crime and in offences relating to drink. THE PROSPERITY OF THE TOWN.

In five years since No-License the population «f Ashburton has in • creased from 2,500 to 2,563, which of itself is eloquent testimony to the utter stagnation of the town. Business is very bad, over forty establishments having changed hands since 1903, and fully a dozen businesses are now in the market. At least six prominent prohibitionist tradesmen have shown themselves so satisfied with business under the regime they advocated that they have removed themselves and their businesses to places were licenses exist. No less than eleven shops have been burnt out in the last eighteen months, and the town is so prosperous that in many cases no effort has been made to rebuild. The debt? sued for in the Magistrate's Court Have increased in amount from £3,115 in 1902 to £4,633 in 190,7, an, increase of 49 per cent , which disposes of the frequently expressed opinion that people pay their debts better under NoLicense. It is said that a large proportion of business people are satisfied, but actions speak louder than words, and at the Court-house polling booth, in the centre of the business population, the votes cast in 1905 were: For restoration 618 Against, restoration 335 Majority for restoration 283 A QUESTION FOR TEMPERANCE REFORMERS. It is evident that, judged by the very test proposed by the Prohibitionists themselves, No-License is a failure in Ashburton. There is no decrease in crime, as shown by the Police Court records; on the contrary, there is a slight increase. Instead of increased prosperity, so Javishly promised, we find complete stagnation. Instead of business people enlarging their premises, we find them falling over each other in their hurry to escape from the town. Instead of the workers having a plentiful supply of cash, we find small debts harder than ever to collect. On the top of all these failures, we have the horrors of sly-grog, with its train of ruined homes. In ,the face of all these facts, is it not time for those temperance reformers who believe in .coercion as a remedy, to ask themselves whether these results are in spite of, or because of, the law they defend.