A POET ON DRINK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2510, 1 June 1893, Page 1

A POET ON DRINK.

The following letter appears in a North Island paper:— Sir, —The Rev Mr Isitt, in a recent number of the organ which he edits, publishes, for my edification, an account of a frightful case that occurred in Sydney, in which a lunatic, presumably under the influence of drink, threw kerosene over his wife and set fire to her. Having enjoyed the friendship of Mr Isitt for several years, that gentleman naturally takes an interest in my welfare, and is, no doubt amazed that I should connect myself with such an institution as the Brewers’ Association of New Zealand, Hence the heading which he places over the account of the terrible incident to which he directs my attention— ‘ How Does Mr Bracken See It V I may reply that I view it with the same feeling of horror that I do the thousands of crimes that are committed over the world daily by brutalised people. Mr laitt’s objects, however, is to illustrate the evils of the liquor traffic, and by implication to prove that all crime is attributable to ‘ the bottle.’ I could, in refutation of this fallacy, point to numbers of cases in which men of the strictest temperance principles have within the past few years committed acts which ‘ cry to Heaven for vengeance.’ I might point to a long list of educated scoundrels, many of them pillars of piety and champions of temperance, who in Australia, and even in New Zealand, have swindled the widow and orphan and brought despair and misery into many a home. One illustratian of the ‘ horrible ’ type, however, will suffice to show that all crime cannot be attributed to drunkenness. A friend of mine, who happened to be staying at the Cathedral Hotel, Melbourne, at the time the late lamented Mr Frederick Deeming was located there, assured me that the individual in question was a most'temperate man, and that his favorite beverage was ginger ale with a dash of sherry in it. And yet this beast perpetrated a series of the most atrocious murders committed during the present century, It must have been the dash of sherry that animated him. How does Mr Isitt see it ? As regards those enemies of mankind, the brewers, is it not strange that Her Gracious Majesty should have conferred such high digitieson many of them during the past 30 years ? We find prominent members of the brewing trade created knights, baronets, and even raised to the peerage. Then again wa find that religious bodies have not been ashamed to accept brewers’ money for good purposes. I think Mr Isitt will admit that the Anglican Church occupies an important place among the leading denominations of Christendom. Well that communion has to thank the brewers for many munificent gifts. St, Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, was re-built at an enormous cost by Sir Benjamin Leo Guinness, with money made from the sale of his world-famed stout. Christchurch Cathedral, in the same city, was restored by a brewer, and there are hundreds of similar cases in England and Scotland, where the generosity of brewers has been displayed in promoting religious and charitable objects. As a class, then, they cannot be such terrible criminals as Mr Isitt and his friends would make them out to be, The reverend gentleman is kind enough to give it as his opinion that I am ‘ worthy to be named New Zealand’s Laureate.* I value such a compliment very highly indeed, coming, as it does, from a gentleman of considerable literary taste and ability. He suggests that I should write a ‘ grand dramatic poem ’ on the Sydney atrocity, to be called ‘ The Beginning and the End.’ I should like to oblige him if I had the time at my disposal. 1 am afraid, however, that, if Prohibition were the law, my effort would turn out to be a very wishy-washy production, that is if any credence can be given to the following remarks of an eminent authority, Dr Robt. Farquharson, M.P. That gentleman writes ‘Shakespeare, we know, was no ascetic, and has even been accused of hastening his death by excess ; and does it seem probable that his unique knowledge of human nature could have been acquired ou water alone ? Burns’ faults are too well known, and sometimes too freely denounced by the ‘ unco guid,’ but although ho might have been a better man if he had confined his potations to ginger ale, would he hayebeen as good a poet I It is very certain that Byron did not write ‘ Don Juan ’ in his vinegar days. There is no proof that the Lake poets derived their dietetic inspiration Rom the medium near whi h they lived; and when we look along the whole range of literary history we doubt if the record of any genius can be found who stormed Parnassus with a blue ribbon in his button-hole.’ On some future occasion I shall endeavour to show that wherever Prohibition has been tried it has proved a failure, and that instead of stamping out intemperance it has fostered sly grog shanties and encouraged deceit and hybocrisy. —I am, &c., Thomas Bracken.