SCENE ON A P. AND O.STEAMER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1834, 7 May 1888, Page 3

SCENE ON A P. AND O.STEAMER

The Rev. D. V. Lucas writes to the Daiiy Telegraph from King George'e Sound, 3rd February, 1888 : "We embarked at Adelaide by the P- and O. steamer Maaailia on Saturday 31at December, Among the passengers who had come aboard at Melbourne on Thursday was a young man about twenty-six years of age, Buffering from delirium tremem. He had decided to return to the old land, and must of course have a good time with the boya before sotting oat, m the drinking places so numerous In your oity. Why Bhould he not ? For what other purpose do most of your drink shops exist 1 Poor fellow ;he was too far gone to be able to give a satisfactory aococtut of himself , bo that little oould be learned concerning him by those on board. He got no Hqaor on the ship, so Melbourne grog-shops mußt have the credit for supplying him. During the whole of Friday he was m a condition of semi*lunacy. On Saturd y ha grew worse, and on Saturday night he w»b bo unmanageable that it waa found necessary to bind him down hands and feet. Wo matter now who he is. If he be a graduate of one of the best universities, and gold medallist at that, as others In bis preeent oondifctou have beon — no matter — bind him down. Though he be one of the nobleßt of young men, with ac large and as kind a heart as ever beat m a human breast, as many m hla present condition have been when sober — no matter he is a riving maniac now, and with all hla natural kindliness, he might kill some one now, so bind him down ; or as the oapfcaio said to me, he mlght t more likely than not, jump overboard, and some of the ship's crew might lose their lives m trying to save him— bo bind him down ! True, there la a way by which Bach aa he might be free. This essence of hell, which baa brought the hard corda to bis poor hands and feet, might have been long since forbidden to be made and sold for huirun slaughter ; but that, forsooth, might have been an Interference with somebody's liberty, Better, I Buppoee, that he should be bound than that anyone Bhould be deprived of the liberty to make and sell that which has brought the corda on him, 0, liberty 1 what chains have bsen forged m thy name. What wrongs hare been inflicted upon poor humanity under the false cry of Freedom. But our poor fellow-traveller has oeaaed to cry out for • mother 1' « father !' 'police !' He is quiet now. He la very pale, O God, he ia dead ! Dead, just bb the new year ia ushered m 1 Dead 1 Hoar it from the deep, O ye rummakera and rum-vendora. Tho youn^ man, who with his jolly companions, pats hla money into yoar hands for that whioh your accursed avarice bo readily cffered him a few daya ago, is dead-— killed by your rum. Do you think that you can evade that Divine inquisition which will at the great day of reokoning ask why this yoang man waa out off long years before bia allotted time? The voice of your brother's blood crieth unto God from the depths of fche flea. There are those who tell us that we must have a liquor traffic, for where elee can wa raiae the revenue ? And so we must kill youog men, and cast thorn into the sea, that a Christian nation may have a revenue, Oh, civilised and Christian men, when will your eyes be opened ? My Master bids ma say of such rovenue, as waa said of the price for which avarice Bold Him, 'It ia not lawful that you should put it into the treasury, for it fa the priO9 of blood.'"