CURING THE DRINK COMPLAINT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3759, 7 March 1907, Page 2

CURING THE DRINK COMPLAINT.

Onk hundred and sixty two, convictions against a woman for drunkenness is an unenviable score and yet a woman who was once as good as any other woman, answered to the latest charge in a Police Court the other day. She was sent to gaol for six months. She will come out of goal and get drunk for the hundred and sixty third time. Gaol won’t cure her and homilies from the Bench will only make Her tired. The sensible person who gives himself time to examine a case like this won’t ask why this old offender still persists in getting drunk. He will ask if there is any cufaUve property in short periods of gaol. He will in fact be filled with pity that the law and science have never yet found any reasonable means of dealing with the perpetual drink-disease. New South Wales has made an effort to attack the evil of chronic drunkenness by setting a part of a Sydney gaol aside for the care and detention of poor souls whose moral fibre has been weakened and who are helpless as far as selfcontrol is concerned. N.S.W. will detain these people indefinitely and will try curative treatment and not punishment. It is reasonable that there are thousands of chronic “drunks” who might be most useful members of society if really and truly prohibited from taking drink. In fact it is well known that many brilliant people become victims of the alcohol habit and are in no sense blameable as many good folks who are not tempted would have one believe. There is no doubt that the chronic drunk is a' nuisance to everybody, and that 'the indeterminate sentence is worthy of a trial until the time arrives when the people shall prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquor altogether.