The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22, 1883. THE STATE OF MAINE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1310, 22 February 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22, 1883. THE STATE OF MAINE.

The State of Maine is the Paradise of Good Templars-the model territory where a man is made sober by Act of Parliament. It is often questioned whether men are not as other men tire in this highly moral region, and statistics from this Stato possess a lively interest for all parts of the civilised world where the drink problem remains an insoluble difficulty, Returns from this State have been recently published. From tliem we gather that the prohibitory law is just as thoroughly and efficiently enforced in Maine as any other prohibitory law against crime of any nature, The tax derived from the sale of liquor in Maine amounts to 3 cents per head; the average for the whole Stato is 183 cents per head, It follows from this that the drink consumed in Maine isonly one-sixtieth part of the quantity drank in other parts of America, Consequent on this almost total suppression of the drink traffic there has been a marked diminution of crime. The last census, for example shewed that -while Maine had one out of every 7,819 of her population in gaol, the neighboring State of Massachusetts had one in every 380 of her population incarcerated. Tho State of Maine leads the Union in freedom from crime. We learn from the same authority that "all political, parties in the State favor the continuance and the enforcement of its speoial prohibitory law. This law has been now in continuous operation for a period of twenty-five yearsj so that its results cannot be said to be temporary or transitory, The State of Maine contains a larger population than the colony of New Zealand, and'tho test may fairly be said to have been applied ,on a sufficiently extended scale. There in. the city of Portland, the capital of Maine, secret grog-shops and private clubrvoonis jn dark and dreary cellars where the members caji obtain drinks at a heavy price, Whenever these become known the stock of fixtures are speedily confiscated and destroyed, There is not a single hotel in the Sta,te where liquors are openly sold. Ko public bar-rooms exist, The manufacture of distilled and fermented drinks is effectually suppressed. In 183.0, when the population was two-thirds less t|jp now, there were thirteen distilleries that produced two gallons per oapita j now there is not a single distillery or brewery in the State ,oi Maine, In the rural districts the . traffic is practically extinct. ■ln the cities, the law, with public opinion, has driven the trade into secret holes and cellars—places, known only to the few | infatuated who would go through Hell to get their dram,