THE LOCAL REFORMERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 2, 3 June 1913, Page 3

THE LOCAL REFORMERS.

(To the Editor)

Sir, —The local reformers read' your | issue of Monday morning' with much interest; but yet they are not quite satisfied with your sub-leader on "Fighting with Fire." The suggestion is to beat "the devil by taking control of his agencies an<l turning them to the uses of virtue." This may be a good plan with some little devils, but when the writer proposes that way of dealing with'"the devil in solutions" he reckons without his host. Dancing is instanced as an amusement that might be so dealt with by improving the methods and the company. That is perfectly true, .and by that means dancing might again become a healthy, helpful and even a religious exercise, and for this reason: that dancing is in itself good for body and mind, when rightly undertaken and enjoyed. When, however, it is proposed to so deal with the alcoholic, intoxicating drink; that it serves no useful or necessary purpose as a beverage (we are not now dealing with medical use; the chemist will provide for that); that if sufficient alcohol is taken to produce any effect that effect is always harmful. The above may be discounted as only a lay- | man's statement. There is what Sir Victor Horsley says, in his book "Alcohol and the Human Body," second edition, page 19: "It is quite impossible to state that any given minimal amount of the drug is harmless to our tissues." All that being so, how foolish to think of "fighting with fire" in connection with the drink! We might get the drink demon under a measure of control—and it has been tried often enough—but like all evil things, when we think we .have it under control it suddenly snaps the leading strings and turns 'on us with fury. That which has in itself' a measure of good may be. and should be, regulated; that which has no redeeming features of goodness, and is only and wholly bad should be abolished. Thanking you again for a good paper to-day, and craving space for this short letter,— I am, etc., a A PROHIBITIONIST.