A PRACTICAL LETTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3026, 24 October 1908, Page 5

A PRACTICAL LETTER.

To the Editor. Sir,—l read with much interest the practical, though humorously written letter of your correspondent "Brown Bread and Butter Milk." Everyone, of course, knows that good liquor consumed in moderate quantities tends to longevity. The records of • statisticians show that moderate drinkers live longer than anyone, and possibly because they are moderate in other thirgs as well as drink. It is the extremists who are such a wretched niiis- ;ice in social and political life. K ■ doctor, unless he be a crank, ; re an d simple, would advise a mode; ta drinker to give up alcohol to improve his health. But, sir, this is rather apart from the question. Your correspondent, previously referred to, struck a note of common sense, and i trust all who read his letter will mark and inwardly digest the same. Far greater harm is being wrought to-day through the people indulging in all sorts of alleged foods than is caused by the consumption of drink. The focd of the nation is all wrong—there is nothing much the matter with the liquor, in comparison with the necessity for educating the public in the advantages of a proper and simple diet. Why are the teeth of the nation'deeaying? Is it a sign of national decadence? I am afraid, sir, that it is. Whoever heard of a ration of toothless warriors! Is this fad of the No-License party a sign of virility in the people, or the reverse? Well, I look at it in this way. A man in good physical health, and sane in mind, could not possibly drink to excess. His physical, mental, and moral condition would be such that alcoholic liquor would be no temptation to him in the ordinary use of the phrase. Would it not be worth while to endeavour to raise the physical standard of our men and women and inculcate always that true virtue and real moral force lies in resisting temptation, and not indulging in a vice on the sly (such as drinking) by closing up places where liquor is now openly sold. "Brown Bread and Butter Milk" struck right home, rather more, I think, than he considered, when he practically put in a plea for a complete reformation in the cooking of our foods. I notice that Mr Bridges, the NoLicense advocate, is severely hurt by the hearty thrust administered to him by that gentleman, whom he (in a somewhat dyspeptic manner, it is to be feared) refers to as "8.8. and 8.M." Mr Bridges really makes no reply to his argument whatever, but contents himself with as silly a comment as a sane man, a teetotaller, and a No-License advocate, could make. To contend that the publicans are in favour of No-License is sure.y the height of absurdity. Mr Bridges' party, however much respect he may have for the funds of the party, will hardly thank him to write such rubbish to the newspapers.—l am, etc., A.H.