ENGLAND'S MONSTER EVIL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1939, 8 September 1888, Page 2

ENGLAND'S MONSTER EVIL

Archdeacon Farcar la an artlole m a raoaat number of the " Fortnightly " writes as followa : — The monster evil of England at this moment la still drink. It is, to nse the phrase applied by Emerson to the far lesa universal and overwhelming evil of slavery, "an accursed mountain of Borrow." 1 know no subject on whlah the na'l inal oonsoienoa Is so totally seared as it were with a hot Iron. I think that It wonld be impossible that the demand for aearohing and radloal reform In oar drink legislation could be opposed, as It is, by fatuous j)koa and deorepit epigrams if those who have bo long suooesafally resisted the rigbteoos demand of sufjeplng multitudes oonld only see, rq the parish clergyman, the prison chaplain, and the hfflpltal surgeo.n oee, the hideous train of rala, disease, and unutterable wretchedness which the present condition of our liquor traffic entails. I can answer for it that In my own pariaiwnithioh contains many of the poorest— there would be hardly any crime, or absolute destitution, oe hopeleei nVßery, if we ooald eliminate the aurse of drink, fostered by multitudes of needleaa gln-ahops. We spnadondrink directly nearly 126,000,000 of pounds a year, and indlreotly a sum almost inconceivable, la the *' Judicial Stntlatlos w for 1886, p 20, I 6nd ti\*\ persoua were summarily proceeded against for being dru,nk and disorderly. In the London district about SO, OOO are yearly arrested for drunkenness, and of these 15,600 are women. The numbers may mean nothing to aome readers ; to others they mean crime of every degree of violenoe and Infamy— the fiendish kjojk.\pg and beating and maiming of wives, the brutal ill-treatment of. y.0.a0.2 ohildren, the overlaying an^alqw murder and starvation of teqa of thousands of infants, the em* polsonment of blood In another genaratlon of grlminaJa and harlots. For the number of thoie arrested for drunkenness is known to be a very small fraotion of the nnj»ber of drunkards. Tbe drink traffic W strong m the Influence of wealthy oajpUalists and brewers and gin distiller* are freely elevated to the EJonae pi Lprda. In defeoce of our present dr^nk laws there 1% a banded union of the triple forces of ignoranoe. appetite and interest, Nevertheless, the fact remains th«t drink is the chief cause of our woret national disgraces ao a nation; that we sin, and. have heen sinning for yeara* with » high hand, against God and man, by forcing onr drink on the helpless childhood of the world ; that we are decimating and demoralising and even destroying the poor aboriginal races with y which we come m contact ; that from John n o'Groat's house to Land's end we defile p our own country with the oqr&a of ardent ° spirits; and that " intioxiqating drink is a the greatest faq.to,r oi crioce, pauperism, £ orphaqboctd, prostration, Insanity, and L dlseaee." These are strong words, and when It Is remembered that the amount spent annually m strong drink m New Zealand per h,ead of th.c population Is a ; about the same as. (hat m the old oountry, . every true colonist doej well to enquire ! E whether, ire are likely to inherit the same !j results. II io» la It not worth an effort to v lessen, m tome degree the evils arising n( from an hibltu»l|uie of itrong drlalj, rj