Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1901. TEMPERANCE IN PRANCE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 1 March 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1901. TEMPERANCE IN PRANCE.

Tue Temperance movement gained a very decided advantage in the French Chamber in December last, when upon the Drink Duties’ Bill M. Vaillant proposed a clause enjoining the Government to prohibit the manufacture of beverages recognised as dangerous and declared to be such by the Academy of Medicine. He urged the necessity of putting a stop to the consumption of absinthe and other noxious liquors, which amounted in Paris alone to 100,000 hectolitres a year. He insisted that, as the sale cf arsenic and other poisons was prohibited, the prohibition should also be applied to poisons which converted a quiet and healthy man into a madman or a lunatic. His proposal was necessary as a measure of public safety. Several Deputies objected to the proposal on the ground that the Government had already sufficient powers, and M. Cai laux, the Minister of Finance, demurred to the insertion of a sanitary clause in a fiscal Bill. He suggested that the clause should be relegated to a pending Bill on adulteration. M. Mirman, however, maintained the urgency of defending the nation against the absinthe habit, and on a show of hands the amendment was unanimously adopted. The Chamber agreed to the Drink Duties’ Bi 1 on Tuesday by 378 votes to 181.” Ihe adoption of the proposal is regarded as but the first movement, which is to be followed by others. Until a few years ago the French people avoided the “ harder c’ass of spirits,” but lately the consumption of brandy and whisky, especially the atter, has gone up enormously to the injury of the “ light wine trade,” and it is said to bo as much in the interests of the vine-growers as in that of temperance pure and simp’e that the present movement is being made. In any case it is a step in the right direction.