South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2900, 12 July 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1882.

There is no feature of British life so narrowly watched as drunkenness is. Every candid person recognises it as the peculiarly national vice of Englishmen, and he who is observant enough to see so far is sensible enough to understand the misery it works in the community. It is a question worthy of universal consideration whether drunkenness is increasing or decreasing. We should say, unhesitatingly that the vice is dying out. This is one of the most hopeful signs of the times—for it tells not merely of a cessation of the evil, but of a regeneration of public opinion in favor of temperance. It is difficult to say to what particular agency this should be attributed. The diffusion of general knowledge among the people has been the means of awakening the unthinking to a perception of their true interests j the growth and work of temperance societies and judicious legislation have all done their part in the good work. Those to whom we entrust the making of laws, have cast upon them in this matter, a very difficult task, — that, viz., of holding the balance between extreme parties. This difficulty is now happily fast diminishing, for extremes are in this, as in everything else, beginning to meet. The ultra-Temperance party who clamoured for repression of the stongest character, whose original creed was more crushing than the Athanasian, are diminishing in numerical force. Not that there have been many lapses or backslidings among them, but that reason has prevailed over prejudice ; more liberal views have succeeded the narrow ones which are the unvariable characteristic of the early .stages of every reform. These people have come to recognise the good service done in the cause of temperance by the vast number of persons who object to total abstinence, and yet are in the fullest sense temperate, So uncompromising was the attitude of teetotallers at first, that thoughtful men despaired of any cooperation being instituted between them and others, who, while less rabid, were no less earnest in their desire to promote the great cause of temperance. It is easy to understand the original position of the abstainers. They were a small band, and they had set themselves to face a giant of tremendous influence,of wide-spread power, in the effort to rescue humanity from his clutches. What else could they do, what other course was open to them but to take an extreme stand ? They were continually receiving accessions to their ranks, not from the educated and wealthier classes, but from the poor victims of intemperance. It is hardly to be wondered that these poor emancipated slaves should, in the first flush of their joy at self recovery, conduct themselves in an intolerant and objectionable manner. It was to be expected, and it ought to be readily pardoned in consideration of the impetus their movement has given to modern thought. Now that the first charges have been won and the army of temperance workers have obtained something like a commanding social position, there is time to lay down a plan and to decide upon an object. The object that seems most in accord with reason, and commends itself to the greatest number of persons is to’securo the use, without the abuse, of alcohol, to secure that every man shall be the judge of his own actions, that the trade in alcohol shall be regulated and fenced in, so far as the public welfare demands. The plan of operation needed to secure these objects is not repressive legislation, but the embodiment of the best and most moderate public opinion in correspondingly moderate statutes. No extreme party can gain these results alone. It is only by the hearty co-operation of persons of all strides of opinion, who have the cause oif temperance at heart, that our race can be led up to universal self.-control. This harmonious working all who desire to E remote the h ighest interests of manind will do their utmost to bring about.