NO-LICENSE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2254, 28 July 1908, Page 3

NO-LICENSE.

MR. HARNETT’S STATEMENTS. A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER. WANGANUI PUTS ON THE GLOVES. [Press Association.] WANGANUI, July 27. The “Chronicle” devotes an editorial to' the telegraphed report of all interview with Mr. Geo. Harnett, manager of the British football team'. In tlio course of tlio article the paper says:—“When Jdr. Harnett brought his team to Wanganui, he called in to tell us about it, and for a full ten minutes talked with all tlio force of a tornado. His languago was scarcely suited to a drawing-room, and 6ome jieoplo not over-squeamish would have called it rather dirty. Ho invited us to believe that- while lie had 1 been forced to remain, as dry as dust, a heap of other folks were literally tumbling over one another in a disgusting medley of cosmopolitan drunkenness. People were drunk in the streot and drunk in tho houses. It was a case of whisky everywhere and not a drop to drink. In short, it was simply awful, from Mr. Geo. Harnett’s point of view. Ilis windy tirade was so obviously exaggerated and so manisfostly ridiculous that we declined to take’ his denunciation of Invercargill any more seriously than we did bis blatant assertion that Dunedin was absolutely tho most immoral city lie had ever struck, that his men had been persistently postered by young girls, and that, taking one thing and another, while, this sort of thing might be good enough for New Zealanders it didn’t at all suit an Englishman of his calibre. Now, on the eye of his departure from'the. Dominion, Mr Harnett has unburdened himself to an Auckland iirtorviewor. and on the strength of his own alleged experiences in the course of a flying visit to Invercargill. lie presumes to advise the electors of the country as to the course they should take in. regard to NoLicense. If the electors could but seo and hear Mr. Harnett ns we saw and heard him they would be able to form -a pretty good idea of the value of his advice, but tlio majority of them would find it difficult to properly appreciate the magnitude of his egotism.”

A STRAIGHT-OUT DENIAL. A WARPED JUDGMENT. [Press Association.] INVERCARGILL, July 27. In regard to the statement by Mr. Geo. Harnett, manager of the British football team, about drunken men lie saw in. Invercargill, the Mayor states that while lie cannot dispute tlio evidence of Mr. Harnett’s eyes, ho (the Mayor) saw no drunks that day. He points out that because of the football match and tlio unveiling of the troopers’ memorial there was an exceptional crowd in town, and lie states, also, that at tho football dinner Air. Harnett expressed himself, as opposed to No-License. 'The A fay or concludes: “His opinions on this question, so strongly expressed to me, may have influenced his otherwise good judgment.”

NO-LICENSE IN INVERCARGILL. [To the Editor.] Sir, —About three years ago an American newspaper correspondent was leaving the colony. This correspondent, in an interview with an' unknown newspaper interviewer, toid many fairy tales about the evil effects of prohibition in his country: that the Americans were full up of it, -and that it would be a bad day for New Zaeland should it come under No-License. Well, sir, several electorates iiniNcw Zealand have come under No-License, and one and all 'testify to the benefits they have received from so doing. To-day we have an unknown person interviewing the manager of the British football team, who has libelled Invercargill in the same way that the American libelled his country. One hundred of the leading citizens of Invercargill havo given an unqualified denial to the statements now published, just as America has given the'denial to the statements already referred to and nearly one-half of the country has since become dry, and still ■ more are joining tlio ranks. Is it not unfortunate that the interview with the manager of the British football team could not have been arranged at least- a few days ago, instead of on the eve of their embarking for other lands? We would then have lieenable to have got the Hon. R. McNab to have refuted the statement that accommodation, lias suffered frbiu' tile carrying of No-License in Invercargill.—l am. etc.,

FRANCIS STAFFORD. [To the Editor.] Sir, —Who is Mr. George Harnett? If I mistake not he is the manager of the British football team lately here, which team, by tho way, has not itself succeeded in acquiring any particular reputation for sobriety, whatever deeds of prowess it may have performed on the football field. And George Harnett, the “genial” manager, who, by bis own admission, likes his liquor, needs only to be gazed upon for one to at once learn on which side his sympathies are. Several of the statements, as telegraphed by tho Frees Association, are so utterly opposed to facts that one need have no hesitation in disbelieving all that Mr. George Harnett is reported to have said. I know Invercargill, and havo been there several times since no-licenso was carried. 1 have been in every no-license district, jvith the exception of Grey Lynn, in New Zealand, and I state unhesitatingly that the abolition of licenses has been one of tlio greatest factors in making those districts what they are to-day—happy, contented, ami prosperous. What could a two or three days’ stay in Invercargill show Mr. George Harnett about the good or ill effects of no-license? Is it perhaps a case of sour grapes ? “He couldn’t get a drink,” as your paper this morning, aptly puts it, and that, of course, would no doubt bo very trying to Mr. George Harnett. The great interest, too, manifested by the said gentleman in our no-lic-ense system may not, as Mr. George Harnett would doubtless like us to believe, be due to a keen observation and an unbiassed judgment, and it would be interesting to know exactly what influence prompted thoso most remarkable statements. The drunken men whom it is stated Mr. Harnett saw may probably have been but the fanciful imagination of an overwrought brain. In any case, Mr. Harnett’s remarks need only he taken in the spirit in which lie doubtless meant, as a huge joke, and the gentleman is probably even yet smiling at the readiness with which any statement made by him, no matter how ridiculous or puerile, was accepted by the poor, benighted people of New Zealand. —I am, etc., K.C.