BEER AT DANCES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 30, Issue 9, 7 December 1945, Page 4

BEER AT DANCES

Sir f —Your correspondent "Enquirer" is to be congratulated on again bringing this vital matter to the notice of the public, and we also sincerely hope of the authorities concerned. While the incidence, of beer at tlanccs is bad enough its prevalance in connection with other functions from private beer parties upwards should also be remembered; antf its disastrous eilects should not be forgotten. "Enquirer" asks why when our drink bill is £12 291 000' is not some. > > thing* being done to control the wholesale drinking going on in our midst ? One answer is the apathy and indifference of the general public in allowing such conditions to continue. Another answer is that the powers that be are receiving a fat, a very fat, revenue from the sale of this poison with all the debauchery ? misery and broken homes and ruined lives that - follow in its, train jjust as surety as cause and effect. Our country has chosen to use tainted money as a means of finance, so what can we expect but the troubles that must follow such a God-denying practice ? What can be done ? One of the world's greatest alcohol drinking countries has learnt" the lesson and faced the problems. The health and drink record of France has been bad, but now, as cabled recently : "An anti-alcohol campaign ? to be directed by the Minister for Public Health "with the backing of a nsi-. ~, cf »- tional committee of d.octors is announced by the French Government. It is intended to popularise fruit juices as a substitute for alcoholic beverages.. Stringent regulations have been imposed upon the sale of wine to minors." Will our own public and our authorities wake up to the same crying need here before it is too late'? Other centres have, their Temperance Societies W.C.T.U. Bands of '9 f Hope, etc., but to the numbers of serious minded people in Wliakatane who realise the danger to the present and the future generationSj one natuTally asks where is your temperance activity ? Get together and organise, and form a combined voice that can"speak in louder tones to those apparently hard-of-hearing authorities:. Yours etc., Bay of Plenty S.D.A. Temperance Society, Matata.