INTEMPERANCE.

Evening Star, Issue 3803, 3 May 1875, Page 3

INTEMPERANCE.

To the Editor. Slß,—Permit me to inquire when this community will awake to a sense of the terrible evils resulting from the use ot intoxicating drink. One of your morning contemporaries writes to-day : “A sadder affair than that which is now undergoing investigat’aa at the Hospital by a Coroner’s jury can scarcely be imagined.” This-affair is truly a sad one ; but such or similar cases are oft recurring. Sir. cannot this dreadful condition of things he put a stop to? Murder it is, and that too by those who make, sell, and abet the sale and use of this terrible cause of murder—strong drink. Drunkenness is going on every day. Seldom a day passes without a number of poor, helpless, staggering wretches are seen in our streets—men and women made in the likeness of God debased lower, far lower, than the brute, utterly incapable of taking care of themselves. Yet men, or those calling themselves men, aye, and think themselves respectable men, supply these inebriated wretches with glass after glass—in fact, while they have a sixpence to pay. Does not a law that allows such a state of things need mending? The law as now administered is a farce. It is sinnrly monstrous that one man should be punished for drinking what another man is allowed to sell. Then, again, what influence have the united efforts of police and magistrates in suppressing drunkenness ? Notwithstanding fines, public exposure, lock-ups, and imprisonment, drinking still increases. What are the advocates of moderation doing to supppess this terrible evil ? It is earnestly to be hoped that the Licensing Bench, which sits in June next, will bear in mind the evils arising from the use of drink, and absolutely refuse to grant any new licenses.—l am, &c., ~ Humanity. Dunedin, May 3.