"THE REAL CURE FOR INTEMPERANCE."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 37, 15 February 1900, Page 2

"THE REAL CURE FOR INTEMPERANCE."

The Manawatu Standard publishes the following pertinent remark anent the Whangamomona sly-grog selling cases:—" At last an authoritative deliverance has been made as to the real cure for an over-indulgence in intoxicating liquors, and where eo many nostrums have been tried without success, and the only remedy has been abstention from their use, it is with a certain amount of anticipation that the latest idea is approached. In giving judgment in a sly-grog selling case at Whangamomona, Mr. Stanford, S.M„ said that the real cure for intemperance was a strict administration of the liquor law. One would imagine by that that there had not been a strict 'administration of the liquor law in the past, and if that be the opinion of a magistrate so little unfriendly to the powers that be as Mr. Stanford, we can only conclude that those people who have been saying for years that there has been no real attempt to enforce the licensing laws must have been in the right. Unfortunately, Mr. Stanford did not say how it was possible to get strict administration. He must know that Commissioner Tunbridge and his men do their best in no half-hearted manner, and we can only conclude that ;there is a latent reflection on the political heads of the department responsible for the regulation of a traffic which is admittedly the greatest menace to good government in existence. Lately we have had a change in the personnel of the head of the Justice Department, and the Hon. J. McGowan will be able to | test the soundness of Mr. Stanford's theory for curing intemperance. For ourselves we must confess that we are slightly sceptical, although open to conviction, and will watch with interest the progress made in the direction indicated."