GISBORNE UNDER NO-LICENSE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3369, 8 November 1911, Page 5

GISBORNE UNDER NO-LICENSE.

IS IT AN IDEAL PLACE FOR IT? A popular local argument which ieceives special prominence in the offiev il organ of tlie Gisborne No-license Lea gue is that the Gisborne electorate is an ideal district in which to try Nolicense. But is it? What are Me facts? It will be found on inquiring . that the Bay of Plenty boundary runs A \ close- in to the borough ' at Wainui 'beach, it then runs along the hills at the back of Whataupoko to Gisborne Bide of Ormond. To the south the Wairoa river is the boundary, Frasertown on one bank is in Gisborne, Wairoa on the opposite side is in Hawke’s Bay. At the last election in the Bay of Plenty continuance was 653 votes ahead of Nolicense on the bare majority, and is likely to bo still farther ahead this time. The population in the Bay of Plenty is largely a male one, the hotels are widely-scattered, admirably conducted, and suitably catering for the legitimate needs of the travelling public, whose vocations take them up the Coast, or across country to Wairoa or Opotiki. Even the prohibitionist is human and heaves a sigh of relief tvlven he sights the ever-burning light of the .well-kept hostelry after a ride of twenty or thirty miles. e have even heard of our prohibition friends patronising the hotel in preference to putting uP at a boarding-house in the same township. Assuming then that licences continue in the Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay WHAT IS THE POSITION IN GISBORNE?

if No-license wore carried in the Gisborne electorate. All the hotels in the Borough would he shut. But Tatapouri, which is just beyond Wainui beach, would continue open and could be indefinitely enlarged to meet the increased demand. The widow who now conducts a legitimate business at Waerenga-a-hika would 1 be ruined, but the popular host Ncenan, whose bountiful catering was so highly praised by the recent local Presbyterian Assembly at Ormond, a mile or _ two away, would still refresh the thirsty and dusty traveller. At Frasertown the hotel would be closed, hut across the river the Wairca hotels and the "Wairoa business people will reap the benefit of the exodus over the bridge. .We think that every sober-minded and reasonable elector will see that LOCAL NO-LICENSE SIMPLY MEANS REDUCTION. Some hotelkeepers are starved out, while those just over the boundary reap the benefit. But in our opinion a more serious problem presents itself in the Borough of Gisborne. From the official organ of the Gisborne No-license League in its October issue we learn that under Nolicense the one place that could: remain in existence as a depot for liquor of any description would be the local brewery. ‘'The Gisborne Brewery does not come under me Licensing Act. and is in no way affected by Local Option.’’ All it need "do is to open depots at Wainui or Mangapapa (and we understand arrangements have been made for this contingency) for sending its brew to Gisborne. 'The casks, kegs, and cases would then be loaded on to waggons and motor lorries at the brewery, taken to Mangapapa or Wainui, turned round over the "wet” border, and the goods delivered in town by the dozen bottles, Iregs or hogsheads/ The consumer or "syndicate” would simply ring up the Brewery or call at the town 'office and fill in an order form, and the beer would be at his house in half an hour if necessary, and, as at Invercargill, the beer-delivery waggon would call twice a day at the homes-just as the milkcart- does now. Wines and spirits could be secured in just tlie same way from Ormond or Te Karakn. This is no fanciful picture or vague fairy-tale, but just a- plain statement of facts based on what has happened in the other Nolicense areas surrounded by hotels and depots. The only real difference in Gisborne under No-license is that. instead of quenching thirst on a retail scale it has to be done on a wholesale scale. A long shandy could not be got- for 6d—one gallon of beer is the smallest drink allowed hv law in a. No-license area. A nip of Three Star could not be obtained for 6d, a demijohn of spirits would have to be "syndicated.” At the open bar no youth under twenty-one years can he served, but under No-license- youths of 16 can, and do, co-operate to buy and operate on a small keg of beer. No one who has the welfare of the boys or the borough at heart would like to see OUR YOUTH'S DEGRADED AND THE TOWN DISGRACED

by the keg-sprees which have been so notorious at Invercargill that the .Borough Council has been forced to pass a by-law forbidding the consumption of lic.uor in the domains and reserves. In the face of what has happened elsewhere, it seems impossible to make a small area "dry” with a ring-fence of “wet” district all round it, with hotels and depots ready to pour a flood of liquor in. Local No-license not only means reduction in one area for the benefit of the licensed area adjoining, for all other businesses as well as that of hotels suffer a reduction. The floating population which now seeks accommodation in Gisborne will remain outside. The bushman and contractor, shearer and squatter who now conies to Gisborne, will remain in the Bay of Plenty or Hawke's Bay, to en.jov his rest there, and the man who talks so glibly of Gisborne being an ideal electorate in which to try No-license is either ignorant of the facts or wilfully "misleading the public. The man who declines to he misled bv these fairy tales of ideal “dry” districts is going to strike out the bottom line on both papers, and leave things as they are until something better is offered.***