ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 487, 24 December 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

£We arc at all times ready to give expression to everv shade of opinion, out in no case do wo hold ourselves responsible for the sentiveenls of our correspondents.] To the Editor of the Patla Mail. Siu, —The all-absorbing topic now is extra taxation, and public opinion seems to acquiesce in the justice ol; taxing spirits and tobacco. This vet diet must have the approval of every right-thinking person, for both are luxuries, and the former a most demoralising and pernicious one. Rut can the same be said of the latter ? Is it more a luxury than tea? Viewed without prejudice, I think tin; answer must be in tile negative. Tea is a universal drink, especially in this colony ; young and old, rich ami poor, alike partake of it. The consumption of it lias become a habit, and therefore every one now considers it a necessity. Rut is it so? I think not. Our ancestors did very well without it, and it is a well-known fact, that most medical men interdict its in the majority of diseases. If we take it. strong, it affects our nerves, and we cannot sleep ; and analysis proves it to he devoid of either earhonacious or nitrogenous constituents, and therefore useless tor building up the wasted tissues of the body, or for supplying heat. Sugar we know to be an important element in the annual economy, hut do w 2 not take too much of it ? Would there be so much beart-lmm or acidity of (lie stomacn it our consumption was less ? Does tobacco do more injury to the body than tea? Some people it injures, but to the large majority of smokers it is followed by no ill effects. We have heard a great deal said about a tree breakfast table.’’ but my impression is that if smoking was as universal as tea-drinking, we would hear as much of “• a free pipe.’' Sir W. Fox shows bow much wo might save if we gave up spirits and tobacco. Now, I am entirely with him as regards the former, for it 'often mins men and women, body and sou! : it makes wretched homes, and full gaols and lunatic asylums, and gives the grave many victims. Moreover, the taste for it grows, so that while wo begin with a harmless portion, we olten end by killing ourselves, and perhaps by dragging olliers into the same grave. Does tobacco'do this? 1 think not. Smoking is a waste, no doubt, but so is tea-drinking and a gr»at part of the sugar we consume. Would Sir W. Fox like to give up his tea ? It is said that smoking leads to drink. This is all humbug, for a man must be mad, or next door to it, to try and quench his thirst in spirits or colonial or English beer. These will make him more thirsty. I think tea and tobacco are both altogether luxuries, and therefore lanly taxable, and I do not think it just to make fish of one and flesh of another. —I am, &c., SMOKER. Waverlcy, 19th December, 18/9.

(To the Editor of the Fatka Mail.) Sin, —As your columns arc always open to the public, I will just trouble I often look through your columns, hoping to read tlm doings of the Hawera Road Board. but in vain ; and as I require a little information, here goes. I observed a notice in your paper of the 13th, that all rates outstanding on the sth January, ISSO. will he sued, signed by order, “ Cr. V. Bate.” Now, can the Chairman (Mr Monro Hunter), or any of the Board, enlighten ratepayers on the subject. Docs that notice mean last year’s rates only, or does it include this year's too? If it only means last year’s, well and good, as I believe there is a resolution on the books, ordering the clerk to sue for them ; but if it includes this year's, I would like to be informed by what authority, or by whose order, Mr Bate inserted the notice. I have made inquiries of ratepayers, anti also of a member of the Board, and no one knows of a further resolution having been passed by the Board. On what basis does he mean to summon ? Is he to summon who iie. likes first, without th° order of the Board ? Is he to take such responsibility on himself ? If so, I as ratepayer object. He is paid to do as the Board tells him ; and any member of the Board that would

give such an order without a quorum oi. toe D.iard, must have a c.mek, and the clerk ought to know Ids position better than to take any notice of it. —I am. INQUIUI X< r KAT EBAYEU.