ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 73, 5 July 1910, Page 3

ALCOHOLOGY.

WHAT MIGHT BE. - .. (Publiiliu 1 Arrangement). There has bfietf Of the newspapers during tlif? few days a paragraph which, is woTift attention. It is the Masterton Court ' or the six months ending June 30th, 1909,- and that ior the six months ending Ju'lG 30, 1010. .'A stranger, say from Mars, would natu-. ra.ili- ask why such a difference. Jsi tli3*[ earlier period, the first half of 1009, the . Court business is fairly lively; while in tli'j parallel period of 1910 there is quite a slump in Police Court work. Tlere are some of the figures: Drunkenness., fell from 137. to 23; common assault from 20 to nil; theft from 18 to nil; house-break-ing from 6 to nil; resisting the police from 8 to nil; no visible means of support from 9 to 1; obscene language from 8 to *2, and so on-. Now our stranger . might well ask: Is there a cause for this remarkable drop in the criminal record? Manifestly Masterton was much the same during the periods compared except in one particular: in the latter period there was no licensed or recognised sale of alcoholic liquors, while during the former half-year tile half-dozen, liquor bars were in full swing. If we' compare the Court records of other' towns, say Palmerston, Marion or Xew ..Plymouth, where the bar-closing has not come into operation as, yet, we find no such fall in Police Court cases, and we are compelled to admit that the benefit is derived from the fact that there is no open, handy way of getting intoxicants, and consequently very little used: to put it shortly —reduced drink means reduced crime. It is so everywhere. It is so with communities, and it is so with individuals. If the man who was 'brought up by the police for obscenity or rioting or drunkenness would shut his own private bar (just beneath his nose) he would find life much more orderly and pleasant to his family and his neighbors would find it out, too. Few people dream wnai; a different land this would be if only the use of alcoholic drinks were given up, voluntarily or compulsory it does not matter so long as the fl:'nhol is kept out. There is onther wav of putting this point. Everyone mrst see from the experience .of Masterton, and that is not peculiar, for everywhere reduced crime follows reduced consumption of drink, that the use of alcoholic beverages brings a lot of trouble to the Community; it is then quite fair to ask, is there any benefit to put on the other side? It is said, of course, that the trouble comes from the; abuse. Yes but the ABUSE BEGIX,S WITH THE USE. The teetotaller may now very well say to the defender of moderate drinking: Does anv good come of it ? Is the community lively to lose anything in health, morals or happiness if it were given up altogether ? For the last half century or more the abstainer has been showing what everyone now knows, that much harm results; and it now becomes incumbent on the drinker to show that his cup does some good in return for the harm it does. It would be interesting if an educational crusade were started to prove that whisky and gin, etc., do as much good as advertisements say; and then show 'how much the people would lose by turning teetotal. The pages of history would be ransacked in vain to find a country that gained by the introduction of fire-water, or tli.'.t was a loser when it was put away; Ihe Court records would be searched -without success to see if there ever was a country or a district where the abolition or material reduction of drinking .brought increased crime. Tn the search they might travel from Ireland to Clut'ha, and everywhere would find that drink and crime are very nearly related, only Masterton is the latest illustration. "LEST WE FORGET." \