INTEMPERANCE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 February 1855, Page 27

INTEMPERANCE.

To attempt to point out the numerous evils of intemperance is altogether unnecessary, the drunkard as well as the infatuated tipler feels

them, and the sober man is obliged to feel them too. The effect that intemperance has upon the too excitable New Zealander is of a most alarming character, influencing him to commit bold acts of impiety, and to revel in the deepest crimes that human nature is capable of. Accordingly we find a native stepping up to a venerable servant of God, as he is about to ascend his pulpit, and rudely asking him to "have a glass." At another time we hear of no fewer than thirty natives being found drunken and disorderly in the house of prayer. And lastly, we hear that a native in a drunken fit murders one of his owe countrymen in cold blood, by the way side, without the slightest provocation. The great bulk of the native people, we are glad to record, are shocked to learn that the wickedness of the natives has reached such a height, and great anxiety has been evinced by them, to root out, if possible, this terrific, and now wide spread, evil. Several interesting meetings have taken place lately, relative to the importation of intoxicating drinks, and communications have been forwarded on the same subject. "I have already told you," writes an intelligent Chief, "that the evil of drunkenness cannot be put an end to, unless you dry up the spring. You must tell those beyond the sea, not to send it hither in ships." "The indulgence in filthy waters," says another Chief, "is altogether bad; the tree is evil, its roots, are evil, its branches, and its fruit. And what is to be done with such a tree? Why, it must be cut down, even to the ground. All the Europeans should agree to give up the use of these pernicious drinks, and the Natives should do so too 5 and every Captain, and every man on board his ship, should be told, not to bring to New Zealand, any more of the filthy waters."