CORRESPONDENCE. THE ANSWER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81872, 23 October 1906, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE ANSWER.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your issue of Thursday lyou ask a question which I will answer. The question is at the foot of a paragraph describing a scone in a Tarunaki courthouse; and il reads: "Is 11 an argument in favor uf moderation That must mean moderation as against total abstinence; today there can be 110 argument between moderation and drunkenness. In !his vi'-'w of i lie query ihe answer is simply No!, and for many reasons. In the first place it is not certain that the "weakly anaemic looking old chap'' was physically so much below hi-; red-fated brother as the paragraph infers; he had considerable vitality when his personal habiis were called into question. The red face does not always mean robust healih, nor the- pale face a constitutional weakness: this is especially true with regard to the aged. But if the palelaced man had a weak constitution his total abstinence from intoxicants had brought him 011 to his sixty-sixth year—not so bad. This, however, is paying with the answer. tveiiyone knows that it is not the scientific way lo generalise on such a slender basis as only two cases; nothing can be even inferred, much less provtid, ill that \va!y. To prove the question between ihe teetotaller and the quiet tipplei we should take tile experience of thousands and then draw our conclusions. Here are a few facts ihat tell altogether against even the moderate drinker: The Rechabites have about two-thirds tho number of days, per member, 011 sick list when compaied with the other benefit societies; in seven regiments in the regular Army in India tho admissions to hospitals among abstainers was 49 l )t;r moo, against g; per 1000 among' nonabstainers. Then an examination of the statistics of the various insurance companies where the two classes, abstainers and non-abstainers, are kept separate prove the superiority of I In; former. No reliable investigation of this sort has ever shown any other answer. In this connection there appeared in ihe "N.Z. Times'' of ihe lXih inst. an interesting article on "Alcohol as a medicine'; in it i)r Sims Woodhcad is quoted as saying -. "Wherever we have accurate data on which to base a conclusion no verdict can be given in favor of ahohol." If the writer of your paragraph wants fuller particulars 1 shall be veilv glad to oblige him; it would take too much of your space to give it unasked.—l am, etc., G.H.M.