The Tuapeka Times. THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1870. "Measures, not Men."

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 114, 14 April 1870, Page 4

The Tuapeka Times. THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1870. "Measures, not Men."

The Honourable the Premier has lately been making himself prominent in- -the north as a teetotal lecturer. Whether he is adopting this means to direct public attention from the failure of his defence policy is best known to himself. Mx. Fox appears to be an attractive lecturer on total abstinence, as his meetings have been crowded by attentive listeners. In, a few, days he is expected to pay a visit to these southern parts, and probably some of us may have the opportunity of hearing-dfnm in one of his orations. The honourable leader of 'the New Zealand Parliament is* a strong advocate of the Permissive "Bill which the United Kingdom Alliance have worked hardYoTsome" years, without"" success, to have numbered among the English Statutes. The Bill has been introduced into the House of Commons on more than one occasion, but it has always been thrown out by an overwhelming majorit}'-. Still the advocates of toetotalism,. with a seal only equalled by the fanaticism of those who objected to the notorious Maynooth Grant, bring forward $Air pet scheme for the amelioration of >

the drinking habits of society every session of Parliament. Like many other theories equally plausible, the teetotal one has long since been exploded. There is no doubt it has, in individual cases,

been the salvation of .some who. *~from necessity wisely adopted it ; but to bring such a theory into . practise in the governing of a country, we fear, would prove a gigantic failure ; — indeed it is questionable whether any prohibitory law can be successfully worked. The habits of a country must be trained, not restrained; and to force teetotalism upon a country whose habits are its second nature is like forcing constitutional government upon a race of savages who are to.tally unfi.t, on the, one hand, to use the liberty given them, and, on theother, to bear the. restraints put upon them by such a government. The old copy-book maxi,m, " Intemperance has ruined many thousands," is no more true in its application to drinking than it is to, eating, and

to every excess to which frail humanity is subject Even amongst teetotallers there is often observed more intemperance than amongst moderate drinkers. A striking illustration of this was ktejy shown at one of Mr. Fox's meetings, when

Archdeacon Maunsell was met by, a $torm of hisses, for stating that although he sympathised with the cause, and wished it every success, he himself was not a total abstainer. Froude is right when he says, " th& most difficult thing to tolerate, is intolerance." But let it not for. a moment be supposed that While we disapprove of teetotalism as a system impracticable in its workings in a community of liberty.-loving British subjects, that we therefore approve of the drinking habits of the coiony. Far from it ; there is nothing we lament more than the inordinate drinking which we find around us ; nothing we lament more than to see men, endowed in, many, cases with superior.- ajbility, degrading themselves immeasurably below the beasts of the field — prostrating their energies, and incapacitating themselves for any honourable position in life, and becoming a, byword amongst their fellow mci*. We have such men' hjaking disgraceful exhibitions of thera&elves v in nearly every comraunity ; and even in our Provincial Councils and Colonial Parliaments not unfrequently do s.uch exhibitions occur—^men/ who will sell their votes and their constituents for a nobbier of brandy. Conduct like that cannot be too laarshly commented upon or held up to scorn, and ife says but little for the morality of any constituency that will return such men as their representatives. No, we abhor, perhaps as much as Mr. Fox, the drinking habits of* New Zealand, ■but we regret- that we. cannot look to a Permissive Bill as likely to be successful in arresting the prevailing — we may"say the predominating evil. For men who deprave themselves in the manner we have de- , scribed Mr. Fox's teetotal doctrines are the only cure ; but because these immoderate and intemperate individuals cannot, use the gifts of a wise Providence without abusing

, them, it is simply absurd to at- < tempt to deprive temperate and - moderate men of the necessities or luxuries which they know how to use.