A RACIAL QUESTION

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1917, Page 6

A RACIAL QUESTION

To the Editor. Sir,—Tn your paper recently the hemline of a. report of a Court case arising nut of a row at Kaimiro was certainly mi--l«Mlin's. It was lieaded a. "Racial Question,'' hut it should have been a "fleer Question." Tf there had been no beer there would have heen n'p raeial question and no row and no case (or the Magistrate's Court. These young men were school hoys together, played together and worked together before the war. though some were of British and others of alien parentage. This did not trouhlo. them then. They were all Now Zcalandcrs. and proud of their country. No doubt the incidents of this war roused the question of origin, hut their neighborly feelings and a sense of.loyalty "to the land of their birth kept all such under proper control. Then, however, when the beer came in (or was it poured in ? I the neighborly feelings and the sense of loyalty to one another, and to the country, were washed away, and fhe mere ignorant and animal passions took possession of the. intoxicated men. And, 10, the result, a result of which no doubt, they, are all ashamed and sorry this morning. This is always the ivav with the drink. It "steals away the' brains," and brings reasonable men into acting like unreasonable brutes. It is not the men hut the drink that we [hen see and hear. Vet in the fac» of nil this there are still people who conlinue to drink it. and try to defend it. There is the case of a happy social entertainment in aid of a most worthy cause converted, by this invisible spirit of beer, into a publichousc brawl. It is about time that sensible people—we all think iv-' arc that—determined to keep all intoxicants out of sueli functions; in fact, to banish it from the country, for the onlv results we sec from its use arc disastrous.—l am, etc.. G. 11. Maunder.