ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 14, 11 July 1911, Page 6

ALCOHOLOGY.

A MESSAGE FROM THE ARCTIC REGIONS. (Published by Arrangement). Sir John Ross, nearly 80 years ago, wrote: "I was twenty years older than any of the officers and "men, yet I could stand the cold better than any of them, who all made use of tobacco aiid spirits. I emtirely abstained from these. The matt irresistible proof of the value of abstinence was when we abandoned our ship and were obliged to leave behind us all our wine and spirits. It was remarkable to observe" how much stronger and more aide the men were to do their work wlien they had nothing but water to drink." FIFTY YEARS LATER.

Sir Francis Grenfcll said when referring 10 his experiences as a commander of the British troops in the Soudan: "We drank from the Nile with nothing added. I took over the rearguard on the occasion of the finish of the campaign, and in no other part of the world have I seen a force of men so fit and so well as that force which was employed on the Vile."

Lord Wolseley, who was the Com-mander-in-Chief in the above campaign, also said: "The troops up the Nile, in the Soudan, have now been for months without either beer or spirits, and no little army was ever more contented, and no men could behave better i« camp or fight better in the field than did oiir soldiers in their late gallant effort to reach Khartoum in time to save the life of that noble hero, General Gordon."

The. records of these experiences in Arctic frosts and torrid heats, by land and by sea, are ample proof that the use of alcoholic drinks is a hindrance to good work, and no help in resisting the hardships of life either as soldier or sailor. It is then only oommon sense to infer thai such drinks are not needed in New Zealand in our dav. So much as showing that alcohol is not necessary. On the other hand, it wa.s a source of danger. When Lord Wolseley entered on the Nile expedition he wanted to make it from the start a non-alcoholic enterprise. The doctors over-ruled him, and at first Honor was served to the men This almost proved a disaster, for the yells of a drunken soldier well nigh frustrated the success of the General's march to Tel-el-Kebir, and from that tune Wolseley insisted on all intoxicants being excluded from tho camps Wo have then two things: good W()r k —the best work—<uid cheorfufendurance without drink; and on the other hand serious danger, nob to the drinker only, but to all in the camp through tlie drunkenness of one man. Perhaps the best lesson we can learn from the last incident is: "Where there's drink there's danger."