BAD DRINK.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 23, 4 July 1911, Page 2

BAD DRINK.

TO THE EDITOR. SIR —I'm not a drinking man, but have enough of the Scottish blood of my forbears in my veins to appreciate whisky, and to strongly resent having it spoilt or poisoned. It doesn't matter where it happened, whether in the Waikato or at the Bluff, it is enough'that it did happen,,and if it goes on happening, it —with the other devices worked by some publicans in their hurry to get rich —is going to influence many votes, when the question of Do- ■ minioh prohibition comes up for settlement. I refer to the abominable practice of serving up to customers the collected drainings of soda water bottles. Everybody knows, and none better than the publican, that stale soda water is not only nauseating but highly injurious. A bottle of this poison was passed to me (never mind when), but profiting by experience I examined its contents, and then reached for the water jug. There was a 250 per cent profit on my " eyeful" of whisky, even if it had been of the best quality, which it wasn't, yet on top of that there was a 2000 or perhaps nearer a 20,000 per cent Drofit on those slops. And all for what ? Simply to assist Mr Boniface in his hurry to get rich, regardless of any consideration for the health, taste, comfort, or convenience of his client. Who but the publican himself is responsible for the apparent trend towards Dominion prohibition. Personally, I woukl prefer to have "license" in the town or country in which I lived, but just at this moment, while the thought of those poisonous slops are fresh in my mind, I feel very sore against that section of the trade which has no other thought or consideration but that of lining its own pockets. It Was the low-class publican that gav e birth to prohibition, and if the trade is to live, and it ought to, then such a practice as I cornplain of —which is only a fleabite to many of 'die devices of the low-class publican —will have to be taken in hand, not by the prohibitionists, but by the trade itself. Surely there are, or ought to be, enough clean men in the trade to save it from the certain result of the Vnakc-haste-to-get-rich policy. If not, then that result is not only assured but may be nearer than we think. —I am, etc., HOKI.