A WOMEN'S LETTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10492, 1 December 1911, Page 6

A WOMEN'S LETTER.

ITo The Editor.]

'Sir, — Having followed closely the articiles .advertised by the Tirade, I brave come to the concfliiision. that it Is. Wike a dying mmi* graspiing ai straw. TJileir day ja done. I. rootroe ithey hring forth .many rea.son9 why the; women should vote for the opem bar. First >and foremost, who ■are the greatest sufferers? The women' eveiry time; the wife' and children; of the drunken haishand, and lasilly thie diinuiikard himself. Secondly, (the women are 'mothers' of men. We have been, proudly referred to as the .backbone of the British natiicto. Thenj, BiJreljy to God we are not going to he referred to in, the fixture as the backbone of the Trade. Arid •tha/t'isi what <it will come to if the Trad© is, avowed to go on. Two thousand men die every ' year in New Zealand through the effects of strong drink, and that means in three years sax thousand. Every one of those mien is- a> .woman's son. 'Does''.the. Trade rea% _ think thai the [mothers of those isix thous'ainc men aire going to the very jaw« 01 death for their lives, and thei cflbtflie and educate ithem to keen tk Taiade going? I say Not.' Even s woman .may driink, and the hu<s(ba,iK be a dirunkaird; bait no father oa mother cares to see their son grow up a. druakard, and I'm sure tht cry of that grinl a few weeks ag< -who jumped off (the train: in, des'. peratiioni at the eondiuct of a drunk en father and mother, must "jg ir the ears' of every mother in the Do minion. And' then- again; one of oun own young .men, from Masterton, who imet (bis death am a drunker hrawfll at -WePhigtom. He waiS* a mo fther'ts :son.. Then. we go hack a few years, to the lliittle .town of Norse. ■wVjod, on the 'Napier l dine, where a daTunika.rd's wife, in desperatdoni wewt to the publican and begged luin not to seWe her husband witt dirink, as when he was drunk he wait mad and their lives', .were in danger She event offerett to pay the prubfloar more money than the husband wouilfc spend a week in. drafrik, bu.t the puh ifcin onfly Ikuigbed at'her. On. th< folllowinig Saturday he .served hrrr withi drink, and the result was hi? brain was rimflamed wiith alcohol'. H< went .liomie and chopoed fluis wife,anc four ohildn-en to death with the toima hawk. Tilie people of Nbrsewooc were so indignant that a3T the hotefflf had l , tpi close over it, and then' th<

Trade say that the nromen have reason to vote for rte<rriMe curse* ; Ibut the women .say "No!" every time. * The. mothers and fathers of •tßiriis 1 country are going to do their duty, fo« the .sake of their boys—the hoys .that are to he the future men of New Zealand. If not, what a sad .thing it will ibe three years hence l , if tßey are drankardfe., and their father and mother advise them to steady up. 'What' will their answer ibe>? They wiM ,say to their parents, "Wjhy didn't you- wipe it out when you had the opportunity, and: put temptation, out of ou;r way?" Children! may be caught in. the .saloon ■snare. The victims' of alcohol fill! our gaofe, alms-Jiouises and insane asylums; hub not by a woman's vote. —I lam, etc., A (MOTHER OF A LAROE EIAIMILY OF SONS.