INTEMPERANCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 90, 30 October 1869, Page 3

INTEMPERANCE.

(To the Editor of the Tuapeka Times x )

Siu, Tv a recent number of your paper, f observed a letter signed " Abstainer " Although I quite a-j;ree with your correspondent in deploring the spread of drunkenness, I cannot think his method of total abstinence at all calculated to lessen the evil. Tt is not so much the quantity as the quality of the drink consumed that does the mischief ; and this might be remedied by a system of inspection, without any such interference with the liberty of the individual as a Maine Law denotes. Our ancestors acted more sensibly in this matter than we do, for in a history of the reigu of Edward 111. (a.d. 1364) we read that one John Penrose, caught vending unsound wine, waj 1 sentenced as follows by tho Lord Mayor of London :—": — " That he, John Penrose, shall drink a large draught of the same wine which he sold to the common people, and that the remainder of the wine shall be poured on the head and shoulders of the said John Penrose ; and that he shall forswear the calling of a vintner in the City of London for ever." I can picture to myself the dismay of our pa~.lica.ns if snbjecfced io a similar penalty. Indeed, were the draught v?ry large, it would, in some cases, b<* equivalent to a sentence of death. — I am, &c, Mo deration.