MONDAY,MARCH 28, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 73, 28 March 1870, Page 2

MONDAY,MARCH 28, 1870.

ilt is not often that the public of Nelson I have such a treat offered to them as that afforded by the lecture of Saturday night last. Than Mr. Fox we have i'ew, if any, finer orators in New Zealand ; no matter what the subject on which lie is speaking, he has a happy knack of attracting the j attention of his hearers at the outset, and of rivetting it throughout the whole of his | address ; au excellent actor, he can, by a | look or movement, clothe a single word | with a meaning which it would take a more ordinary speaker many sentences to compass ; add to this, a five voice and a : pleasant, way of interspersing his address with numerous lively and amusing anecdotes, all of them to the point, and we believe there will be few to contradict us when we say that au hour could not be more pleasantly spent than in attending one of those lectures for which the Premier has rendered himself_celebrated throughout the colony.

Unfortunately, however, like all enthusiasts, Mr. Fox, when once mounted on Lis hobby, lays the reins on its neck and suffers it wildly to gallop oif witli him wliiLhcrsoevcr it chooses ; he becomes exneti;)g nwd unreasonable ; having formed ?ortain iixed opinions he is convinced that they must bo, and are, perfectly right, while all those who venture to differ from him are as cctainly in the wrong ; rash assertions are made, and impracticable remedies are suggested for that which he believes to be the root of almost every evil that flesh is heir to ; and, iv fact, he may be said, wheu treating on the subject of total abstinence, to have entirely lost his

own individuality, and for the time being to hitve become part and parcel of the hobby-horse which ho is riding, not with the skill of the practised equestrian, but with the passive helplessness of the nervous novice, who is painfully conscious lhat the direction in which ho is to travel depends not so much upon his own will, as upon that of the nuimal ha bestrides.

We fully recognise the vast importance of the subject to which Mr. Fox has of late been devoting his attention ; we cannot but be aware of the "many and crying evils which are to he traced to the terrible demon of drink, but at the same time we are unable to go so far as Mr. Fox and say, because much drunkenness exists, therefore that every man should become a total abstainer. We are inclined to take a higher view of human nature, and to believe (hat. the large majority of men can enjoy the gcod things that God has provided for them in wholesome moderation, and no argument that ever we have heard adduced ou this subject has proved to our satisfaction that the moderate drinker would, in abstaining from that which is to a certain extent a source of enjoyment, and in many cases a necessity, to him, be performing an actiou which would be either praiseworthy in the eyes of his fellow-men, or acceptable to his Maker. With the druukard it is an entirely different matter, there is no middle course for him to pursue, and the only cure for his terrible mania is for him to sign the pledge, and many such a one has had reason to feel thankful to that society of which Mr. Fox is so able and earnest a member, for the facilities afforded to him for breaking himself of the accuised habit which was luring him on to certain destruction.

We have said that we cannot agree with Mr. Fox in li is belief that all men should become teetotallers, neither can we go so far as he does in asserting that all the evils v/itlr wh'ch society is afiiicted are attributable to drink. "If there were no drink," he says, " we could (Jo away with judges and all the paraphernalia of the bar ; we should ueed no police, no gaols, no lunatic asylums." Does any one believe this ? Does Mr. Fox himself really do so ? We

can only state tli.it for cur part, on hearingit, we felt pained ami annoyed, that the speaker should weaken the cause for which he was pleading with such earnestness, by making so rash and exaggerated a statement. One of the means proposed by the lecturer for reinforcing the ranks of the teetotallers, was so unique aud so palpably unpractical that we cauuot but allude to il. here as being an evidence of what we have before hinted at, v.amAy, that enthusiasts when once started on their favourite subject, becoming utterly forgetful of the realities of life, enter as it were upon a visionary world, where affairs are managed more in consonance with their own peculiar ideas. Mr. Fox's advice to young woin'en who may receive proposals ot marriage is as follows: — When the adoring swain- is at your feet making all sorts of' foolish promises, you should put his affection to the test by saying: "If you are really willing to do whatever I ask yon, prove it by hiking the pledge aud keeping it for twelve months; until you have done this, it is "0 use for you to come f iiuoouling' after me." Whether or not it is customary among young ladies to couch a refusal in such language ;;s this we cannot now slay to inquire — but we may state that in listening to the speaker we were for the moment so carried- away by his eloquence, so impressed by his earnestness, that we really began to think that on the whole it might be a desirable thing for our young ladies to decline to marry any but teetotallers, but uufurtimfitely there was se.ited by our side a hard matter of fact man of the world who smuggled in the remark "It's but few husbands they'll get if they did that." Here then were the two opposites — on the platform, the hopeful visionary who saw things not; as they were but as he would have them to be — among the audience, the plain practical man who dealt with facts and not with dreams. Which was most likely to be correct ? Mr. Fox furnished his audience with some intricate statistics showing how many miles of road might have been made, how many chains of wire fencing erected, how raauy cattle might have been purchased, how many Queen's l'pgiments retained in the colony with the money which luid been expended in drink, but such calculations, although extremely interesting, and doubtlessly most correctly worked out. are no argument aiainst the moderate consumption of liquor, or, if they be, they may also be made use of in other matters. For instance, if our wives, daughters, aud sisters were clad iv plain cheap materials, instead of the more expensive articles of clothing iv which we delight to see them anayed, we should certainly have more money to spend on cattle and Queen's regiments, but is there one amongst us who, when he sees the female portion of his family dressed in their Sunday best, is churl enough to assume a severity of countenance as he calculates how many fighting men are represented by his wife's bonnet, or what fractional part of a bullock his daughter is carrying on her back iv that mysteriously arranged punier ? And yet Mr. Fox's argument is just as applicable in the one case as in the other.

We may, we believe, safely venture to assert that there Was not one present in the room on Saturday night, who was not favourably impressed with the earnestness and zeal of the lecturer in carrying out the task he has undertaken, or who could feel otherwise than grateful to him for the endeavours he is making to ameliorate the condition of his fellow mcD, but the question has arisen in many minds besides our own — is he setting to work in the right way ? Would it not he far better to accept it as an undeuiable and incontrovertible fact that men will partake to a certain extent of stimulating liquor 3, and, instead of attempting the impossible feat of stemming the torrent, to endeavor to confine it within wholesome limits ? With this view we would suggest to Mr, Fox that he should use the influence he possesses, as the leading man in New in inducing the legislature to take some steps whereby tho deleterious adulteration of liquor, of which so much use is made as an argument against the consumption of wines and spirits, shall be, as far as possible, put a stop to, and we would further express our conviction that by removing the d v ty from the light and wholesome wines of Australia, a great step would be made in the direction of lessening the evils of drunkenness, which are so deeply deplored by all who have at heart the interests of this their adopted country.

The Glassblowers advertise another and final entertainment for this evening, when asau inducement which should be allsufficient 1 , they undertake to make presents to all who attend. From Nelson they go to the West Coast, where we wish them every success, as there can bo no doubt that their exhibition is the most instructive and enterlaiuing that has ever visited Now Zealand ; all the arrangements 100 are capi'al, made by Mr. Peaehm.ui, the agent, who superintends the drawing for the numerous prizes, in a manner which gives universal satisfaction.

Fiuk. — Between three and four o'clock venter .iay morning a fire' broke out in a house at the port iv (he occupation of Mrs. M'DonalJ, who "was awakened from her sleep by finding the bedclothes Ob fire, and I) ad only time to rouse her four children and get them out of the house before it became enveloped in flames. On the alarm being given the Auxiliary Firo Brigade were quickly on the spot, hut it was found that the hose would not reach (he burninj; building, which was situated on (he hill at the entrance to Major Richmond's property; nothing therefore could bo done towards saving Uil 1 house or any of its contents. It is supposed that the flames originated in a spark from iho fire which was kept burning all night on account of one of the children beiiv? an. invalid and requiring constant-warm baths. falling among -some dry wood near the heard), thus setting if. on Tivs. We regret to learn that Mrs. Al 'Donald, who is the wife of a boatman trading between Nelson and Motuekn, has lost a large sum of money, £100 we believe, which she had secreted iv the bedding and had not lima to rescue, so quickly did the fl.iirus spread. The house, lately the residence of Mr. Cross, the Harbor master, was insured i'o" a small amount. Total Abstinence. — The announcement that the Hon. il.e Premier was to lecture on this subject on Saturday evening attracted a large audience to i he Ti-?inner-ance Hall, which- was crowded to excess. Mr. Smith, having been called to thj chair, introduced Mr. Fox, who at. once commenced his lecture which we regret we are unable to give in full. He stated on the authority of Chief Justice Cockburu that it there were.' no drink there would be no crime, and consequently that we should be able to do without judges and barristers — there would be no need of police, gao!s and lunatic asylums. It had been argued that as the duty on liquors formed a' very large part of the revenue, it would lead to the bankruptcy of the colony if all were to become total abstainers, but this he met by stating that if the money were not speut iv drink it would be in the people's pockets, and the Government would always find somo means of getting at it. He then produced some curious calculations which showec! that with the money which had been spent on drink in New Zealand 1640 miles of road might have beeu made, or 3,240 r OOO chains of wire fencing erected, or 41 Queen's regiments retained in the colony at the rate of £40 per man. The sum 3 mouey would suffice buy all the sheep in New Zealand, numbering some eight millions. He suggested that as women were the greatest sufferers by the intemperate habits of the men, uo license should be granted for a public house, unless a requisition was provided sigued by a large proportion of the women in the district. Reference was made to the wholesome system of adulteration which was carried on, arid the lecturer showed what an amount of poisonous matter was swallowed by the drinker of wines aud spirits. At the conclusion of the address, which was listened to with the greatest interest throughout, a vote of thanks to Mr. Fox was proposed by Sir D. Monro, who stated that although he was unable to °"o the whole lensjth with Mvi Fox, he had his full sympathies in the earnest eu. deavors he was makiugito put some check on the evils that were caused by excessive drinking.