THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4034, 10 February 1892, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

ftibkki by Ik courtesy of th Editor of WairarapaDaikjmidertlie auspices ■■; of. the New Zealand AUxawx forth prohibition of th liqwr traffic, Masterton Amilhry. When ratepayers demand the entire extinction of aU places for ihe'tak of liawrstheirpmyer should k granted. —Charles Bmton, Brewer, . [Communications for this column must bo addressed to "Tho Prohibitionist," oaro of Editor of Waibabapa Daiia.l . ] The 'Melbourne Herald' thus writes concerning the annual meeting ot the Victorian Alliance;—" One of

the greatest organisations for good that the Colony possesses," This is

the description of the Victorian, Alliance given last evening by Joseph Winter, president of the Trades'hall Council. It was pronounced at a great meeiing, worthy of the Alliance, worthy of the great cause in which it works so earnestly and so well, worthy of our citizens I '.The Premier of the colony, a life-long abstainer, and one whose enthusiasm grows rather than wanes with eaoh additional year of the world's experience, filled the presidential chair. Ex-Ministers of the Crown and present member* of '. Parliament'supported him; the clergy was well represented j earnest men of all classes, and moro earnest women thronged the platform. There, were abler orators than Mr Winter amongst those who answered the call of the president: none described more accurately what the Alliance was, "One oi the greatest organisations for good that the Colony : possesses," Never was the Town Ball more crowded. That, indeed, were an impossibility. Hundreds were denied admission altogether, and it was not until the thronged passages bad been cleared, in order that the safety of. the immense audience might not be menaced,'that the business of the annual public meeting of the Victorian Alliance could proceed.

The Hon. J. Munro spoke at the above meeting as follows:—They were spending upwards of £6,000,000 every year on intoxicating drink in Victoria, which was fur 100 muoh for a community of little mote than 1,000,000. He had distributed £120,000 to the charitable institutions, and it was a matter of complaint that even that was not enough, because their charitable institutions, gaols, aud lunatio asylums were crowded with those who had ruined themselves with this cursed drink. (Cheers.) That state of affairs could only be mitigated by doing away as far as possible with the evils connected with the liquor traffic. (Cheers,) The task was a serious one,-out it should be resolutely faced. They were about to have a general election, and while of that large number of members who had subscribed to the Alliance he did not' know of any who had deserted their colours, he would say, havn in every electorate in the colony at least one candidate who would take up the platform of the Alliance in its integrity and be prepared to stand or fall by it, (Oheois) Personally, he had maintained that platform, aud he had never received the publicans' rote in his lifetime, (Cheers.) He did not want it, If he could not retain his seat in Parliament without the Publicans' vote, he would be very much better at home at his own fireside. (Cheers,) In regard to the Alliance, he would ask that everyman and every woman should do their duty, (Cheers,)

" Does Prohibition prohibit ?" The latest answer ia given to this question by the Hon, Neal Dow, who writes to the Christian Union in September last as follows:—In your issue of the 12th instant is a leader with the above heading, The third paragraph commences bj saying, " The argument againsi Prohibition is that its advantages are more than counterbalanced by secret drinking; that home drinking, club drinking, and dritg-Btore drinking, are enormously increased." This may have been intended to apply only to lowa and the effects of its prohibitory laws; but it seems to have a general application. If to lowa, then the writer, I think, cannot have seen the message of ex-Governor Larrabee, in which the immense benefits and advantages of Prohibition are very fully get forth, so as tq satisfy any unprejudiced mind that the volume of the liguor traffic in that State has been greatly reduced under that policy, But as the remark of the Union seems to apply generally to the policy of Prohibition wherever adopted, will you kindly allow me to say that it cannot have been inspired by any facts existing in Maine, where that policy wss adopted forty years ago, and has been sustained here by an overwhelming publio opinion from that day.

A greatmany newspapers and magazines, both clerical and lay, come to my table every week, and have done so for many years. In some of these I read that our Maine Law is a failure; that under it more liquor is sold than ever before; and again that because of its operation in excluding liquors, the summer travel, which has hitherto been very large, lias now fallen to very small proportions, And again, these papers say that the business of the State has been greatly injured by excluding a large and profitable traa)e-tq wit, "(the' liquor traffic, None of this tal|c ,is seen in our Maine papers j this discouraging, depressing news come? to us only froip New York, Buffalo, Ohipago, ijnd the far West, Until we read all this we had no conception of tbe miserable case wo. are in! The summer travel in Maine and summer residence here is very large', and is increasing every year, The present season has been one of distressing dearth to those who, above all things, lilie 'urjflk/ bj|t tjie summer tray'ei (p been larger' thai ever before, straining to'tho utmost'the ability of our railways and coast and lake steamers, and .tho capacity of our hotels, boardingihouses, and coast and island cottages, Before the summer of 1892 there will be many more hotels and oof tagos, and some of our present bo'teiswipb v V'eVy' ;ii)u,cb, enlarged/-: ■ ■'. ; ''-.'•'■' ■: ' 'The industries of Maine have been greatly multiplied and extended, and our business generally is in a very Satisfactory condition,. FrOK .the potest fitajp in ||e. fpjfV as, JJaine i wasfn the ofd run) jiniej it 'has J becprne gne of |Ae moat j could not be otherwise,; becajne vp\ save and add to' our accumulated wealth, direotlyand indireotly, morethan twenty-four million dollars annually, which but for Prohibition would be spent.and wasted in drirdt, asinthejld''timebefd^'.tne i Maine Law. ; ]yV iisjcj,. to'i • spend" I ]n' j|at way in every period voire the full value of all property-'of .every : kj'ndj as-the people of. the Union .are

now doing in every, period of thirty yeara ■ , ; ' ; ;-

Some timeago a famous New York paper had it, that in consequence of the disastrous tesulls of Prohibition, the general business of Maine had been greatly embarrassed, and in Portland especially it had been nearly ruined, I havq lived here all my life, but bad riot suspected such a dreadful state of things, and went immediately to our banks and to our leading wholesale establishments; every one of them, without exception, assured me that the business of Portland bad been constantly increasing in volume, and at that time was " better than ever before, not .only in magnitude of sales, but in promptness of payment, .., Mr Blaine said there is no part of the Anglo-Saxon world where, in proportion to population, there is bo little drinking, as in Maine. Ho might truthfully have included in that remark the entire civilized world. It is perfectly safe to say that in Portland the volume of the liquor traffic is not one hundredth part bo large as it was before Prohibition, though the city is twice larger now i and in Maine the quantity of liquor sold is not onetwentieth part BO much as it was in 1851, the date of the Maine Law,