VINE CULTURE AND WINE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 634, 11 October 1909, Page 9

VINE CULTURE AND WINE.

Sir,—lt has always struck n\e during tho thirty two.'or three years of my sojourn "in New Zealand as';most strango 1 Jfhat, with our fertile soil and salubrious climate,' so little encouragement is offered by tho powers that be (our so. called. Government) to increase tho spending power of its people by'inducing them, to retain money.in tno country, support, local ,in'dustry in place of sending it to foreign shores 'in exchange for (to fjuote Scripture) "wine that roaketn the heart glad/' I am, therefore, i pleased to note, in y( ir issue of, to-day, that

"the • Northern Waiiroa community are inaking an effort to induce the Government lo assist the vino'growing, for which tho Northern Wairoa climate is said to be specially adapted," and for this purpose Parliament is about to ba petitioned by a document very largely signed. The principal feature of which, from my way of thinking, -is its final clause, viz.:— "That legislation bo enacted providing - that any fit person of good character shall bo entitled to be licensed to sell pure New Zealand wine by retail." No doubt, were it not for tho misguided views of 'the prohibition community, even this Government would see tho advisability of granting : their, lequest—a request which, I feel sure, echoes the sentiment of most right-thinking men. .'Even tho teetotaller need have little fear of such increasing the list of drunkards! We need only.tako wine-imbibing countries, such as France, to find that the cheaper ond easier one can obtain wine, the less percentage of drunken- ! ness is to be found, compare,d with other nations whose beverage is good old British beer or foreign spirits. Besides, sir, js it not a fact that good wire is most beneficial in building up tho frame and constitution of the human animal, just as good, pure water will assist in the improvement of the lower species? So good luck to the Northern Wairoa enterprise, and may we,all get a bottle of New Zealand's "best" for a "bob" ere long!—I am, etc., . . .- : -KENT..