THE GOTHENBURG SYSTEM.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 299, 9 June 1898, Page 3

THE GOTHENBURG SYSTEM.

The hostility of all genuine tccto'allors to anything savouring of what is loosely called the Gothenburg system is well known, and nothing is more surprising in temperance agitation than tiic vain belief which has taken root among a considerable number of Scottish ministers tint they can draw the teetotallers in to their " Threefold Option " scheme, of which the distinguishing feature is that it contemplates the management of the liquor trade by local authorities. But the teetotallers nevertheless find one saving grace in the syst ins actually in force in Sweden and Norway, namely, that they admit the principle of Local Option ; and there will be found among them many who contend that whatever improvements are discernible in the sobriety of those countries are due, rot to wdiat we call the Gothenburg system, but to the Local Veto which accompanies it. Local Veto is in full swing in Norway, and it has re tilted in the total pro" hibition of the retail sale of spirits in all the country places. . . . The prohibition of the sale of spirits has revived the long extinct business of illicit distillation, which implies the illicit sale of bad spirits, and the difficulty of getting spirits has driven the people to drink an abomination called Laddcvin, a sort of sweet, spirituous port wine made in Germany, and this makes them more drunk than any houest spirit. The worst of it is that children like it, aud it makes them drunk too. Such are the blessings of prohibition which the teetotallers are. so anxious to confer upon this country. Information of this kiud is always of the greatest interest. To anyone who is earnestly inquiring into the subject of liquor legislation it is of the greatest consequence to get it officially verified. Lord Peel's Commission was appointed that it might, among other things, render services of this kind to etrnest inquirers. But by the extraordinary resolution it adopted some time ago it has precluded itself from doing so. It seems a pity.—Advertiser.