INTEMPERANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 October 1922, Page 1

INTEMPERANCE.

THE VIRTTTES OF MODERATION. Tho “Otago Daily Times” in a recent issue makes some very pertinent remarks on the subject of the extent) of the intemperate use of intoxicating liquors in this country. “It is rather difficult to understand why it should he considered necessary by some i:crfervid advocates of prohibition to represent New Zealand as a country in which the vice of drunkenness prevails to a very serious extent ail to depict the native-born New Zealanders as intemperate,” says the Dimed.n journal. “The residents of the Dor inion who are proud of their country, and- of its population have some right to re-sent allegations of this char o tc In point of sobriety New Zealand will compare favourably with most of t.'e other countries of the world. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly sober. The statistics of the convictions for drunkenness establish that conclusively. In the past ten years, while the population of the country has im-rc.i . kI by about 209,000. the number of convictions for drunkenness has declined to a marked degree. The proportion of convictions per lOflO of the mean population in mi was 11.23. In 1320 it was 7.13. The proportion was lower still last voar, when there was a decrease of 308 in the number of prosecutions for drunkenness as compared with the previous year.” “The tendency seems unquestionably to ho towards an increased, moderation in the use of intoxicants,” M-atinuos our contemporary. “It is uoted - in the Official Year Book that limit is less evidence of drunkenness i mrng tbo New Zealand born population. «t European descent than among I mesons v, lie have come from abroad. In for instance. 8225 persons, exclusive o. Maoris, were arrested for drunkenness. Of those 8207 were New Zealand bom, and 5018 were persons who canieliom :i ,b,,,ad. Thico-fourths. _ the European population of the minions consists of persons born m New Zealand. Instead of their coniributin" three-fourths of tl.o number of' persons arrested for drunkenness, they contributed less than 4» per mb - it is, therefore, clearly an unwaii ant'd reflection on the native born Now Zealanders, to represent them as pe - son- undnlv addicted to the use ot alcohol Wo do not ignore tl.o grave evils flint are associated wit c ..Im.se of intoxicating hqiioi, but tic Snco of those evils does not constitute any justification for hoMimt "V N *cw Zealand as a shocking example ot n drunken country. * „