A DISGRACE TO HUMANITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 6, 26 May 1914, Page 8

A DISGRACE TO HUMANITY.

(To the Editor.) ■Sir, —The magistrate. as reported in your paper, said "the man isi a dingrac.: to humanity." The man -was a drunkard, a sad, pitiable victim of the drink habit. He had to submit to the lecture from the bench, and l no doubt was conscious of his own blameworthiness; but we outside can see another way of it. I do not object to the words in my heading. but t do object to the application of it to tiha man who was the victim. bcvnmsr much more disgrace attaches to tho-o who supplied the drink than to the drinker. He was suffering from a diseased condition, that cravod 1 for more drink. The disgsvice attaches to those who supplied him with tho intoxicating drink. And who supplied him? The man is so wall known in town that u BMOTt ihaive someone wto knew hist failing. I want to get to the bottom of thip and find tut who is ultimately responsible for thi.s "Utagiuce to ■humanity." It may be that in thy end tho magistrate himself may find'tint &<• has to bear a part of this responsibility. Many, I know; Mamie tlia hotel-keepers for men becoming intoxicated. They are not responsible for men getting; drunk. They are licenwd to malca men drunk. Some say no! but the fact is that the law reccpnj*-* that the use of "forawuted and spirituous liquors" which the hotelkeeper is licensed to sell (toes make men drunk, and so it says that the licensee shall not harbor drunken persons on his premises; in Bhprt, he may maike them drunk, and then miust turn them out. Neither the retailer nor the wholesaler in this business is. Free from responsibility. They know, and often own, that it is a bad; business-,, and my advice to them i 9 to get out of it; but having the license they can point to it as their authority and justification, and pass on the responsibility to thoie who issue tun license. That, Sir, is where the disgrace l'ies. Those who in this country vote for the continuance of this evi! svstem of licensing a,r® responsible,, not for this onan'a downfall only, but for the tens of thousands of drunkards who wvuse so much trouble in the land. The disgrace to-day is on those who voted for the trade in intoxicants. There arc in New Zealand 259,94"? persons who said in 1911 that they did not want any share in this difigraccful businsss. but e minority of 205.661 declared that it shall continue to our di'VJnice —and the minority rules in this ultra-democratic country. When these drink horrors come before u», methinks the feeling—if they have any l —of those who formed that minority cannot be Wry comfortable, jhey ihavo in imagination to stand iloiigsid>e the drunkard, a-nd tilie drinkmade criminal, and ,remember tli-it their vote helped in his downfall. That is the diwrraee to civilised, presumably Ohristianwd humanity—that it allows a selfish minlority to rule.—l am, otc., O.U.M