CORRESPONDENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2300, 19 September 1908, Page 1

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Correspondence oil public matters is welcomed nt nil times, but it must bo distinctly understood that tbit iournal is in no way associated with the opinions of its corroapoudents.] HOCKEY. [To THE Editou.] Sir,-—ln to-day’s ladies’ hockey match on tho Victoria Donum, it appeared t,, me such a pity that the enthusiasm of some of the spectators should ca-uso them to oncroicli on the actual ground of play, when in standing ithi'eo yards back they could see tho play just as well. Mr Olsen (the referee) spoke to thorn once about it; but, naturally, the referee cannot pay too much attention to the spectators. Thoso who do not play tho noble game oin ilittlo imagine how it annoys a player, when running for the ball along .the outside lino, to bo confronted with a human wall which ha: no right to’ ho there. Even apart from that fact a littlo consideration might ho shown to the linesmen, who have unite onougli to do as-it is without dodging fill rod put of the spectators, Ho[)i'ug this will not seem too slight a ■snbjec.ti'foifVifoachv-I am, etc.. “A 'FL'VYER WHO SUFFERED' FROM THE ENCROACHING SPECTATORS.” Oisborno, Sept. 17. ALCOHOLIC EXCESS: where DOES IT BEGIN?. [To tite Editor.] Sir, —Just now we are having a good deal of alcoholic talk and writing, and it seems a good time to discuss the question. What is alcoholic excess? The abuser and the disusor of alcohol have no interest in this question ; but tho user, who prefers to employ his faculty of self-control in this matter rather than settle the question by total abstinence, must make up his mind as to what constitutes the abstemious and harmless; quantity of alcohol in JnVown particular case. Men differ so widely in their sensitiveness to this, as to other toxic tilings, that no statement of the excess point can bo made in figures. Some men possess great powers of resistance to tho injurious action of alcohol and other drugs ; others are at the mercy of the smallest quantity. Tho popular idea is that excess is when a mm gets drunk; this, I assert, as an absolutely wrong notion, for I have seen many hundreds of men who were never drunk in their lives, who passed, indeed, as sober men, but. who were, to tile trained medical eye, suffering from the effects of alcoholic excess to a far greater degree than were others who occasionally got very drunk indeed. I venture to formulate nil approximate rule, the reasons for which, if given, would occupy far too much space, and involves much medical detail. The rule is that excess begins at tho point where simple increase of natural action passes into disordered or unnatural action. For example, the point where slight increase of blood supply tq the stomach caused by alcohol, gives place to disorders of digestion. Such a point would he evidenced t 0 tho individual when the ordinary' feeling of warmth in tho stomach and slightly increased .appetite for food, gave place to decreased appetite, and heart burn, a little nausea, or even vomiting of mucus, in the morning with reflex straining cough. These are results of excess, no matter how small in quantity or how freely diluted the alcohol taken may have been. Another . approximate rule, and perhaps a more useful one than the one mentioned, is that excess is proved when reaction is felt in the fortm of sensations of weakness or.faintness.’which suggests the want of more alcohol to the mind. A simple way of stating this reaction rule is: When a man misses his alcohol badly on its being taken from him, he has begun to take too much, for this reaction is tho first beginning of a desiro for alcohol, and is a serious symptom. But obviously, the disusers have the best of it, for they do’-not need to trouble their heads .at all about fixing the excess point, or securing the point of abstemiousness. Alcohol i 6 not a necessity for men and women in good though it may lie a “permissible indulgence”, and a lot of trouble and expense (which appeals to some necessarily) it saved by abstinence even if it be not total ,ab-, stinencc. As regards total abstinence, I don’t like swearing away my 'liberty to do anything, within reason, and which will hurt nobody else; therefore I am iaot a pledged total abstainer, but merely abstainent, which seems a safe position from my point of view.—l am, etc., “ABSTINENT.” JUDGE EDWARD’S REMARKS. [Tq the Epirqii.J Sir, —His Honor, Judge Edwards, in discharging Michael Cleary, is reported to have made the following remarks: “I very much regret that 1 am not able to make you pay the amount of the expense to which the country has been put owing to your disgraceful conduct. It is entirely owing t 0 this bestial conduct that you are in your present position.” These aro very strong words, but no stronger than pronouncements made by judges throughout the, world against the evils that arise from intemperance.. Had the unfortunate man committed the "offence in Invercargill, though he might have got his drink from a licensed urea, these words would have been blazed abroad by the liquor party. 1 quite share the judge’s regret that the country should be [nit to 'the amount of paying the expenses of the case. Why should tho whole Dominion be punished for tho doings of the liquor traffic and of those men and women by whose vote the liquor temptations have been given a lease of life for three years. There is something in my fear tli,at some people have become callous to the evils of tho liqqor traffic. I do not know the. expenses of the case, which seems to bo ;i small one, but they probably are not far short of what we get from one hotel, as fees, for twelve months. It is not business, hut a suicidal policy regarded only from a revenue point of view. I think it is 'George Eliot, in one of her incomparable stories, avlio said that if people were asked to pay taxation directly they would not dike it, and yet get them to do exactly the same tiling in an indirect manner, they would do it cheerfully. Such is human perversity!—l am, etc. “WHAT NOW.” September 18th.