LIQUOR IN ASHBURTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10110, 4 October 1910, Page 4

LIQUOR IN ASHBURTON.

Mr V. CI. Day, S.M., has brought a hornet's nest round his head by some indiscreet remarks he recently made concerning the prevalence of drinking in the Ashburton Nolicense area. From the judicial posi- [ tion which he occupies, considerable 1 weight is attached to the opinions j of a Magistrate, it is therefore incumbent upon him to weigh his words before giving them public utterance. The statement alleged to have been made by Mr Day, S.M., that "there is probably more temptation in a prohibition district than a licensed district," is absurd. No man without bias would sugget that wholesale sly-grog-selling is practised in any No-licensed area, much less assert that it offers greater I temptation than the open bar. That j

an illicit trade is practised in Masterton, as in Ashburton, is unhappily too true. But lie would be a bold, romancing man who would declare that the same temptation to drink exists to-day as existed when the bars were open. This is not a question of the right or wrong of No-license as a principle. It is a question of fact, and, however much one may deplore the failures of a system, he would be prejudiced indeed who would deny its obvious advantages. Mr Day may be correct when he states that 3000 delivery notices have passed through the hands of the Clerk of the Court in Ashburton in six months. How he came by this information, and made it public, when the Clerk of the Court is liable to a heavy penalty for divulging it, mostly concerns

himself and his Clerk. Assuming that the figures be correct, they cannot be held to support the con-

tention that they are evidence of the existence of a greater tempta-

tion than under the open bar. He must prove tiiat the drink goes to the houses of all those who drank prior to No-license, and to more besides. This he cannot do.