ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 63, 23 June 1910, Page 7

ALCOHOLOGY.

IN BRITISH SCHOOLS. (Published by Arrangement). Though the day has not yet arrived when the schoolmaster will teach total abstinence from alcohol just as he teaches the three R's, it is coming, and not slowly. Sir Wm. Broadbent, M.J., who prepared a valuable scheme for such teaching, put it as the third subject in point of importance —next to English and arithmetic. Now we have a definite syllabus of temperance teaching, the third section of which is most intensely practical. Hence we cull a few points. The previous sections dealt more with the personal results from the use of alcoholic drinks and showed the danger to the individual; this section deals more with the social results —our duty to our neighbor.

•• FREEDOM IS LOST '•if evil habits are acquired." That is "If evil habits are acquired." That is further affirms of the drinker that, "even if he is not actually drunk, he gradually loses -his .power of self-control." "A weak man will often drink more than is good for 'him, not because he wants to, 'but because he lias not got the strength of will to say 'no' when his friends ask him to take more; or perhaps he is afraid of being laughed at by •them, and has not the moral courage to refuse to do what he knows will be had for him."

On the economic side of the liquor question there is much valuable matter in sub-section 3. Of course the figures are all «iven for the United Kingdom, but apply in principle equally to Xew Zealand.' If the money spent in drink were snent in other ways so much more iplcasure and profit might be got iby the spenders and their dependents in the way of better homes, (holidays, and provision for the proverbial "rainy day." It must be remembered, too, how vast is the sum spent in these wasteful, injurious drinks. In Britain it is enough to pav all flie rent of all the farms, shops, houses, hotels, etc., so that the drink money rightly sipent would enable everybody "to live rent free. To put it in another way, it shows that the whole national revenue, local land general, .rates and taxes, is not more than the,drink bill. It is quite true, then, that the drinker taxes himself much more heavily than the Government, the 'borough eoun-

cils, harbor boards, etc., all combined. The remaining clauses point out the many losses that follow drinking; in that men and women are thereby rendered less fit to do tluir duty in life; the 'folly of resorting to alcoholic liquors in times of weakness or despondency-; the effect of alcohol in blunting men's sense of right and wrong, causing them to commit crv tes when in liquor which they -would 1 ver dream 01 wnen quite sober. Sir M tael Foster is quoted as saving: "The use of these things (beer, wine or spirits) has brought no end of misery into the world. If we could take away from the world all the ill-health, all the poverty, all the wretchedness, all the cruelty, all the crime, which has been brought about by drinkin"' too much wine, beer or spirits, and the like, how much happier, wealthier, and brighter the world would be. 1 Mrs. Sidney Webb, the \vell4cnown social reformer and progressive philanthropist, says: "One degraded or ill-conducted worker will demoralise a whole family; one disorderly family inexplicably lowers the conduct of the whole street; the low-caste life of a single street spreads its evil influence over the entire quarter-; the slum quarter . . . subtly deteriorates the standard of health, morality and public spirit of the whole city." The closing sentence of the syllabus, especially applicable to us under democratic Government, is: "It is the duty of every good citizen to help and not to hinder his fellow-men by his own example and influence, and to endeavor to do something, however little, to improve the conditions under which people live." Whilst this syllabus is (prepared for school children, it has appended to it such ample notes and references to the various authorities on alcohol and cognate topics, that it is very useful and interesting reading for all who wish to make the best of life, both for themselves and also for their neighbors.