ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 63, 5 September 1911, Page 6

ALCOHOLOGY.

ITS EFFECTS IN TARANAKI. (Published by Arrangement). Last week the question was discussed: Why interfere with the drinking habits and trade of the people? The interference was then shown to be necessary and reasonable on general grounds. Since then we have had a clear case in our midst which brings forcibly before us the absolute necessity of interference, and still more interference, if the people are to be made sa.fe from the evils that attend the consumption of alcoholic beverages. A -man of undoubted business ability, of good appearance, and normally of agreeable manners, has become the slave of drink. Of course, he was not always so; he began life a teetotaller; he' never meant to be a drunkard: he got, however, into the meshes of the drink net, and now he feels the pain and the sorrow of it. How did he get there? Why, without knowing any of the particulars of his experience it may be safely said that the drinking habits of society—perhaps the home, most, probably the public 'barfirst induced him to take the intoxicating cup. Ask him now if "Wine is a mocker," and he will say "Yes!" It promised pleasure and it has given pain; it promised benefits and it brought losseslosses too serious to- think about. Is it not plain that the customs which bring such sorrow and trouble to'this unfortunate man—and there are thousands more even in New Zealand—should be interfered with? This man has gone under, perhaps beyond recovery; at least beyond recovery by all the means so far available and brought to bear on his case. What can be done to rescue him? What has been attempted? Conviction for drunkenness, and discharged; that is how it is first before the public; thon a fine and caution, more fines and more cautions; then perhaps a pledge is taken and kept for a little while, but a relapse follows. What in the meantime is the law doing? The prohibition order is made out—and the man feels a prohibition order in his own brain and conscience—(but he cannot obey either the inward or the outward monitor. The last scene in the court was. most pathetic. The magistrate and the police sergeant are at their wits' end to tell what to do for the slave of drink; there is no remedy but a place where drink cannot be got. It may be pretty certain that when he really comes to himself the unfortunate inebriate prays for such a place where drink cannot be got. Why not make such a place here? It can be done by those who profess sympathy for the "poor fellow," as they call him. "Very sorry for him." 'How sorry? It it be any real humanitarian —to say nothing of Christian—sympathy it should be shown, and the place to show it is at the polling booth, and the way is by striking out the top lines. One can have but a poor estimate of those who talk so much about pitying the poor drunkard, and yet will not help him by denying themselves that which they know tliey can do very well without, and which they in their inmost thoughts suspect .(to put it mildly) to be doing them no good. One can have nothing but, contempt for those who, like Proessor Salmond, dub all drunkards as fools and weaklings, and go on in their own self-pleasing, yet dangerous, way. (From various sources it is calculated that fully five thousand of our people drop into alcohol's slave gang, as drunkards, every year—some are recovered, but the bulk go under. If they could be put on an island where drink could not be got, and kept there, they would be safe; only that would be ail expensive job for the State. If, however, that cannot be done, and wc cannot pick out of the present moderate drinkers who will fail in their moderation and who will succeed, the only safe way is to make our whole island—and islands—4l safe place for moderates and a rescue place for drunks; and it would also lie a better place for everybody.