EFFECTS OF NO=LICENSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1938, Page 9

EFFECTS OF NO=LICENSE

THE CASE FOR RESTORATION. (Published by Arrangement.) Sir, —After thirty years of local nolicence any person of average intelligence must realise that it has been a real failure. Masterton electors gave us an overwhelming majority for National Continuance at the last election, yet we failed to carry Restoration. Much ado is being made at the present moment by a small coterie of Masterton prohibitionists to keep Masterton dry. I wonder are they really serious? They have not suggested that beer should not be brewed in Masterton! Perhaps they are opposed to interference in business. I will say so long as beer can be brewed, just so long as a brewery can [maintain itself in the town, the prohibition drive is sheer hypocrisy, and the gentlemen concerned know it only too well. Who wishes to keep Masterton dry? I will tell you—a big lot of people who are interested in getting a living out of rum-running, etc. I am opposed to drink. I think the country could well afford to go dry if going dry would correct the morals of men and women. Unfortunately we had the spectacle of a dry America. Since it became wet, what has become of the Al Capones and all the other socalled gunmen associated with sly grogging? No-licence stands for nothing better than the manufacture of criminals. You are a criminal every time you bring drink into a dry area without the police being notified. Surely this is not freedom of the individual; liberty to do and spend as you please. Since the advent of local no-licence, transport facilities have undergone revolutionary changes; thus an hotel on the boundary of Masterton electorate is within 5 minutes of the heart of the town.

All this talk about Masterton’s progress is moonshine. Where is its population? In 1909, the year nolicence was carried, Masterton’s population was 5026; Hastings 4594. What do the figures as recorded i/i the 1937 Year Book reveal? Masterton Borough 9220; Hastings Borough, 13,000. Thus will give you some idea in a just comparison of two towns of similar size in 1909 showing the fallacy of the prohibition advocates in that a wet town is not as prosperous as a dry one.

I wonder why these gentlemen are not advocating National Prohibition. It is very apparent their outlook on the movement is not at all optimistic. I will give them credit for publicly voicing their opinion. One can be proud to think we have men in public life who are unafraid of public opinion; perhaps the modern politician will take his cue from them and in so doing some reform in licensing legislation may be looked for. For the present I do hope, that for the sake of consistency and for the benefit of the rising generation, they will not have to resort to the underhand and criminal methods obtaining in the past. After all we are not a nation of topers. Travel the length and breadth of New Zealand and you will not see a drunken man. The bad old days are gone. Regulation of hotel hours and Government inspection of drink have brought the liquor business to a higher level and the abuse is not as prevalent as in days gone by when reform was urged by the late T. E. Taylor and others. In conclusion, I sincerely trust the present election will right a longstanding wrong and an evil. W. SIMPSON, Mayor of Eketahuna. Eketahuna, October 11.