The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, SEPT. 18, 1918. EFFICIENCY.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 279, 18 September 1918, Page 9

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, SEPT. 18, 1918. EFFICIENCY.

“Deliberate, then dare, said a celebrated military general. The members of the Efficiency Hoard acted on this principle in relation to the liquor traffic. They deliberated concerning the forces that make for xictorx and the forces that tend to defeat. In the course of their deliberation the\ found that one of the greatest “road-hogs' 1 standing in (he path of speed) victory

is the traffic in alcohol. In other words, thex discovered that tlv greatest bar to progress is the Liquor Bar. Judging not as moralists, but as business men, whose watchword was efficiency, thex discovered the truth of Lloyd George's words, “We are fighting Germany, Austria, and Strong Drink, and the greatest of these is Strong Drink.” Having arrived at suv h a conclusion as the result of their investigations,

they acted on the knowledge they had ease, they ventured ta prescribe the gained. Having “deliberated, they “dared.” Having diagnosed the disremedy; and the prescription was a drastic one. It was less a prescription, indeed, than an operation. What they said in effect concerning the Liquor Trade was, “Cut it down; why cumbcreth it the ground?” lhus saying, they dared greatly. Judging neither as prohibitionists nor moralists, they yet in a trite outdistanced the most thorough going prohibitionist and introduced an act of morality that was novel in the extreme. Jn recommending the abolition of liquor so far as the importation, manufacture, and sale of it in the Dominion as beverages arc concerned, they startled the whole of the liquor traf tickers and a large majority of the liquor drinkers. Jn recommending that monetary recompense should be paid to the liquoi traders, they startled the majority of the people called Prohibitionists. Liquor-sellers asd liqco'-lovers knmx indeed that a larg * percentage of New Zealanders dt sired tin* destruction of the traffic in strong drink. The Trade had experienced, . it i" true, triennial frights, but having heard the cry of “wolf” for so long, it had thought that all was well with it. The Efficiency Hoard's suggestion of absolute prohibition came as a rude awakening. Likewise the Prohibitionists had settled down to ththought iha; compensation was as dead as the dodo. Had they not proclaimed the same from he housetops? The Trade had icccived n a in years' warning that it must eventually quit. Some of the traders up and down the land had in time past been compelled to relinquish their licenses through the operation of the reduction vote. I he traders in the 12 No-I.iccnse areas had likewise been dispossessed of their legal right to sell liquor. Had not the survival of the luckiest provided enough for them in the way of < ompensation ? Yet there, in the Effi cicncy Hoard’s report was the recommendation that reasonable compensation, not to exceed 4} million pounds, should be paid. To many thoroughgoing opponents of the Trade it was unthinkable that a penny should He given in the way of compensation. It was only after grave deliberation that the New Zealand Alliance dared to sup|K>rt the Efficiency Hoard’s recommendations. This decision is being

eudors* d by scores of thousands m New Zealand, who are signing the Alliance petition, which asks for an earlv poll on the liquor question along the lines laid down in the Efficiency Board' s report. Hut there are some who refuse to sign because compensation is recommended. These may be divided into two classes: (1) Those who consider their pockets and 1 2) those who object to compensation on principle. l- r or 'he first -those who hesitate because they fear extra taxation —wc hare nothing but contempt. At a lirnc when our so’d.crs are fr p ely pouring out their life-blood to save us from Hrussianism, it is degrading in the lowest degree for any man or woman to r.iise the cry of, “Oh! my ducats!” Such a person should be “unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.'' Hut our respect goes out to those who hesitate to support the petition on the score of principle. We have a great deal of sympathy with those w ho say, “W hat compensation did our sons get when they had to give up their farms, their homes, and their lives? If tin' countn is allowed to conscript manhood, why cannot it conscript a trade that is injurious to the com-

munity ?” On the other hand, wc must remember that the law of the lan 1 (despite strenuous oppositi on in many quarters) gave the trade 4} y .is to “demobilise. Recognising ih * pernicious effects of the traffic :.n strong drirk, the Efficiency Hoard said in effect: “Hay a money compensation in lieu of time compensation, which the law allows, and get rid of Ihe traffic immediately.” W hen wc remember that the pn sent drink bill is 44 millions, ind that the indirect cost of the traffii i* something like 10 millions; wig'll we Uiink of the lives that will be saved if tl. 4} >ears of the traffic is destroyed, who will hesitate to pax as a ransom a sum that is loss by a quartei ot a million than the annual direit expenditure on strong drink, and le>s bx at least five millions than the indirec expenditure on that which Mights and destroys? Let every person sax, “Set down my name. Sir.”