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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 74

Prohibition in the Clutha

Prohibition in the Clutha.

A year ago the Clutha Presbytery Office-bearers' Association made extensive enquiry, and published a report on the working of Prohibition within their bounds, The points made good by the evidence were :—
1.The removing of public facilities had made drink more difficult to obtain.
2.Drinking had been reduced between a half and a fourth, and the process of diminution was still going on.
3.There was an absence of the disgraceful scenes which used to be witnessed on the streets and high-ways.
4."Shouting" and social drinking had been largely abolished.
5.Many who formerly drank had ceased to do so, the temptation having been removed.
6.Storekeepers got their accounts paid with greater regularity and less trouble.

Not bad for a beginning, as Prohibition always tends to improve with time.

The Police records in the Clutha District give the following arrests for drunkenness during the last two years of license and the first two years of Prohibition :—
Under License, June 92-4. No License, June 94-96.
At Badclutha 36 4
Tapanui 11 0
Clinton 22 1
Totals 69 5
A parliamentary return supplied by Colonel Hume, Chief Commissioner of Police, was laid upon the table of the House of Representatives just before the last session closed giving the following particulars of police offences in the Clutha since prohibition was curried, and for the corrresponding period prior thereto :—
Since Prohibition.
No. of offences Reported. No. of Cases of Drunkenness with Amount of Fines. No. of Cases of Sly Grog-Selling, with Amount of Fines. No. of Cases of Perjury.
80 7 Fines, 10s. 34* Fines, £355 1
Before Prohibition (Similar Period to Above).
137 63 Fines £17 2s 6d. 4 Fines, £8. 2

A minister's wife in the Clutha [unclear: said] us: " Sir, you can tell the people [unclear: where] yon go that those of us who were [unclear: d] before the licenses were refused [unclear: ren] can testify that the moral condition [unclear: of] whole community has been raised [unclear: by] The people attend the services [unclear: of] different churehes in larger numbers [unclear: a] there has been a remarkable [unclear: incr] readiness to receive the Gospel. [unclear: S] families that never had the means to [unclear: co] out decently clad are now happy to [unclear: ta] their places among the rest at the [unclear: seri] and the various social gatherings." [unclear: Th] is surely reason enough why Church [unclear: ma] bers should vote No License. [unclear: as] indicates the awful responsibility [unclear: t] such as are too indifferent to do so.