SOME EARLY HISTORY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10195, 23 March 1911, Page 5

SOME EARLY HISTORY.

[To The Editor.l

" Sir,-4-I ;wass surprised : to •veid' Mr Eton's speech—a gentleman reared and brought jip among.the pe«pj,« and in a long-standing business m *,he i o; "n of Masterton; with a good experienceof the people who came daily f>ero r<3 him—how could he stand up and defend a curse thai he wety knew, from year to year, was sending many a man to the grave before his time. ■ NoWj'Sir, I am a Very.;okt£€!ttler.;l camp across the Rimutaka in 'ss,and can remember many sad Rights in the early day s, through the awful scourge of the liquor trade. I luiye known well educated young men, from good homes, sent out to'be redeemed, and they could hot have done worse than send them to the; colonies. The first billet they got would be on a station as rouseabout, and when they made a cheque it would be away to tlin first public house, and in a week's time he would be shown the door in the horrors. When the poor wretch would plead he would get a drop of poison to help him on his way, and then perhaps he-would be found dead jn a fljixbush, or if.there was a liver between him and home he would pliinge into it, and was never heard of any more.

The poor innocent Maoris in those days were dying daily through the j poisonous stuff that they were getting, I and having no idea that it was blue-' stone and tobacco that they were! drinking. I've heard men making the remarkthat they have seen casks emptied at certain public houses with j lumps of bluestone and tobacco in the bottom. Whenever these station-men-made a cheaue it was away .to • the | nearest publichoUse. Some in the hor- j rors shot themselves, and others hung themselves. There is no end to the horrors I could relate. In my time, generally the very best of the working men were the slaves. Oh, how many poor women and children are suffering to this day all over the country! We say that we people in New Zealand are ah independent people, and so we would be, for we have a beautiful country, but many a fine man has lost his chance through the curse of drink. We would be able to truly say "God's Own Country," if it wasn't for it. Now the curses of horse racing and gambling go hand in hand with drunkenness. They are bringing down young men to the lowest, and are the cause of many sorrowing mothers and wives.

. Now I shall conclude, by wishing that God may give courage, strength and hope to every one that is trying to put this evil down.—l am., etc., (Mrs) M. GRANT. Bannockburn.