TEMPERANCE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1038, 23 May 1883, Page 3

TEMPERANCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Let poets raise a fracas . . ’bout wine. —Burns. Sir, —Our long-suffering publicans receive such drubbings down in such a peremptory strain by so-called temperance orators, that one is .almost inclined to contemptuously sneer at them. Any unprejudiced person cannot deny that fermented liquors have their uses ; but it is the abuse of such articles that is injurious. Port wine and brandy are an excellent compound, administered to persons afflicted with dyseh try, and wsre extensively used in India, Africa, etc., by England’s most distinguished travellers. Worshippers at the shrine of Bacchus are large, certainly; but hundreds have known the efficacious influence a glass of brandy has had in saving people’s lives. Even clergymen, in Great Britain, some years back, when times I were , preposterously bad, were obliged to turn to hotelkeeping. It would be superfluous to dwell long on this subject, and would take up too much space to particularise. the good use of spirits. , Doctors prescribe beer to patients recovering from illness .to strengthen them. In a town in Switzerland, since; the introduction of light wines instead of heavy; there has been far less drunkenness than formerly. In concluding I would say that I should like to see the New Zealand light wines introduced into Patea, either by our publicans—or anybody else, as I believe they would command a good sale; in Christchurch their success has been enormous. Our “ poor publicans ” deserve a word of praise, not reproachjlor the orderly style in which their houses are kept, and the unremitting attention bestowed upon the public generally,, -—Yours, ,&c,, ; Lime juicer.