"Dragged Down By Drink."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 June 1911, Page 4

"Dragged Down By Drink."

4 (T'hristehureh Evening News) The particular selection from the obiter dicta of Mr 11. AY. Bishop, S.M., featured in the local columns of a contemporary to-dav, runs thus: —"It is the old, old story of a good, honest tradesman dragged down by drink.' - ' The comment was made during the hearing of a summons for maintenance against some man who could not or would not support those dependent on him, and the inference, of course, is quite obvious—to Mr Bishop. The licensed trade or the stuff in which it deals is the author of this man's shortcomings, the cause of his starving family, and of his being haled before the Magistrate. But an aciiler mind than Air Bishop's, and one less influenced bv strong personal aversion to the liquor trade and its associations, would not have been so ready to accompany a judicial decision with an •unjudicial expression of opinion based on exceedingly faulty premises. There is nothing new in the licensed trade being pilloried as .a destroyer of homes, and intoxicating liquor as an agent that blasts a man's life and sends him to perdition ; but this kind of tiling is more properly part of the .stoek-in-tradt 1 of the prohibitionist orator, w'lio is never' particularly concerned with the truth of his statements, aiul has no other purposes than that of converting persons to his way of thinking, regardless whether lie is right or wrong. "While, therefore, we can understand the mental attitude of the agitator, it is another thing when'similar ideas shape themselves in the mind of a Magistrate, whose sole duty it is to administer justice between the parties before liim, without perpetrating injustice, even by implication, on parties that are not before him. When a man gives way to a vice, neglects his moral responsibilities, and is summoned for maintenance, it is quite a wrong view to blame the means, instead of the man himself. Indulgence is a conscious act. which the man performs with his eyes open, and know- I ing the probable consequences. It may be an explanation, but iis not an excuse of reprehensible conduct to say that the means were present for the gratification of the vice, consequently the fall was inevitable. It is a* mail's duty to resist tion, and this transference of 'blame from the drunkard for his, selfindulgence, to the thing he indulges in, is not only wrong in itself, but its principal effect is to create a. misplaced' sympathy for the sinner who did wrong when he had no excuse for not. doing right, and_ who is to ho reformed, not hy cultivating tine ability to resist temptation, but by having temptation put beyond his reach! No man becomes a drunkard in >a day, and we venture to say that, the "good, honest tradesman," who. according to Mr Bishop, was ''dragged down by drink," offered himself an easy victim, and regardless of the earnest entreaties and expostulations of his family. Tt was not the "drink" that dragged him down, but a selfish preference for considering himself and his pleasures before his duty to Ibis wife and children. And when he ends up in the dock, for failing to provide his dependents with food -anti clothing, instead of being jblaimied for the fruits of his own misconduct "lie is sympathised with, and tilie blame apportioned elsewhere. Which suggests to us. that if Mr Bishfop cannot control the impulse to indulge in extra-judicial remarks while dispensing justice, it would fce well if he confined them to less controversial matters.