TEMPERANCE INTOXICATED.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 166, 13 July 1880, Page 2

TEMPERANCE INTOXICATED.

To the Editor op Tna "Evening Mail." Sir- I hand you the enclosed letter from Sir William Fox for publication with a few remarks of my own in reference to the same. As tbere is no monopoly in the brewing trade, compeiiti< n prevents profits from being excessive. This assertion is founded on a maxim in political economy that Sir W. Fox

cannot dispute. Lions aud tigers get along very well without belltoppers, and churches, and chapels, and many other things besides beer, that civilised human being 3 have come to think necessary aud good for tbem. Sir W. Fox says at least half the human Tnce, as well as the wild beasts, &c. he refers to, get on exceedingly well without beer 5 but I would ask, supposing this is so, is this half as free from human vice and as conspicuous for human virtue as the other half Sir W. Fox so intern peraiely condemns ? The whole tenor of Sir W. Fox's remarks is based on the fallacy that drink is a cause, whereas it is only an effect. Vegetarians tell you the desire for drink results from ! eating meat, and they can give far better 1 reasons in favor of their views than teetotal- J lers give for t.etotalism. It is not drink that does the harm, nor is it a moderate appetito tor it, but it is the inordinate appetite that does the mischief. Whence does this come ? From the same source that larrikinism and many other social evils come, namely, the want of proper and convenient places of recrea'ion and amusement for the people. Let Sir W. Fox and hia followers give the same attention td providing lectures and concerts, public gymnasiums, parks and gardens, picture galleries, _.c.,._or the people as they now bestow on anathematizing the publicans and brewer., and tbey would confer a real blessing on the community. Now (t.e , with the present mode of procedure) they are simply wasting a good deal of human effort in attempting to stamp out a grave social disease, while wilfully shutting their eyes to the causes which make the symptoms so alarming. In one respect they are eminently successful, namely, in making themselves conspicuous for bigotry and intolerance. — I am, &c, James Grove. Foxhill, July 10, 1880.

Sir W. Fox to Mr James Grove). " Wellington, July 3, 1879. " Sir — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated 30th June, in which you complain of the very great hardship of your being obliged to pay the tax imposed upon beer, while you are uuable to shift the burden on to the shoulders of your customers which you soy you would like to do. You intimate that if this sort of thing is allowed you will lose your trade, and have to give up brewing. " One of the reasons which I believe have induced the Government to impose this tax is the information, which rests on the authority of brewers, ex-brewers, and publicans, given in the public priuts and elsewhere, to the effect that the ordinary profit of brewers on the hogshead is at least 100 per cent, and of publicans aboufc 300. They consider also that beer is not a necessary of lifo, but only a luxury, having remarked that all the most energetic animals, Buch as lions, tigers, horses, and cattle, and at least half the human race, get on exceedingly well without it, and do quite as much hard work as the small part of created nature which drinks beer or other alcoholic liquors. For these reasons they think beer is a very legitimate subject for taxation, and that, if the effect be to lessen the number of the manufacturers and consumers of this article, the human race, and that part of it which resides in New Zealand, will be none the worse. " For myself I do not approve of taxes on strong drink, because they form a golden chain which binds the Government to the drink traffic, and makes ifc its interest (at least Governments generally thiuk so), to promote that traffic. But from the point of view taken by those Governments (that is, a point which puts the moral condition of the people out of sight), I think the tax is an extremely fair and proper one. "I do not consider your remarks as in the least degree impertinent as you suggest I may, though you are an entire stranger to me, and though I disapprove altogether of the trade (or rather traffic) which you follow. Yon profess to take a great interest in the welfare of the " private families " who may by this tax be driven to brew for themselves rather than buy of you. lam afraid your sympathy for them has its root in your own pocket, and not in their hapless condition. Your trade is of all trades the most selfish and destructive of the happiness of others, and I have not any sympathy for those who are in the trade further than I would be glad to see them out of it. Every manufacturer of strong drink must know that the result of his trade is to create nine-tenths of the crime, vice, destitution, and wretchedness of the period, and he will be held responsible for the consequence of his acts, not perhaps in this world, but certainly in the next. My advice to you is to get rid of the business and go into some other, which, instead of contributing to so much crime, vice, and misery, may at least be harmless. You urge as a motive for your carrying on your present business, your desire to earn a livelihood for your family. The liquor traffic, as a general rule, demoralizes and destroys the families of those engaged iv it ; and if you really regard the interests of your family, you will find some o.her means of providing for them than one which ruins thousands and tens of thousands of other families. "Excuse the freedom of my remarks, but the correspondence iB of your own commencing and not mine, and I feel bound, in replying to your letter, to speak the plain truth You are at liberty to make any use you please of my letter. " Your obedient servant, " William Fox." 1,1.1,1111 1 «—- i ii