INTEMPERANCE.

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 70, 17 December 1896, Page 4

INTEMPERANCE.

The following arc condensed reports of the papers read before the Church Congress at Shrewsbury on " The Cmsos of Intcmpeuince and Possible Uemnlies " : The first paper was by Sir Wil'oughby Wade, M.D., who dealt with the individual and (be mcdicil aspects of the question. There was no doubt, he slid, that alcohol was a poison capable of causing death within a few limi:s. It sometimes acted as a chron'e poison, and it might be th;it ionic diseases were produced by alcohol ; but delirium tremens was the only one certainly so produce:'!. Whether a tiling was a poison or not depended upon the amount taken and the statu of the person taking it. What was ordinarily a poison might, as in the cave of arser.ie, becomo ;ui antidote. Indeed, it might be allirmed tint a drug which was incapab'c of doing harm was eipially iucqwl le of doing good : but in perfectly healthy persons, and especially in children, alcohol was not a necessity. Jn some cases, and especial y in asthma, relief was obtained by spirit?, Inn there were few cases in which less objectionable means would not be equally ellicacious. The practice of habitu.il excessive drinking was often can-cd by resort to stimulants to relieve depression of

spirits, but " piok-uio tips " like quinine wine or coca wiuc were sometimes equally dangerous, ami clear soup or meat extract would relieve exhanstion as well as any forms of stimulant. The treatment of cases of habitual excess by legislation was beset with dillicnlt'es which its advocites inadequately appreciated. It would be impossible to treat the drunkard more summarily than the lunatic, who was entitled to a j;i'V and counsel.

Canon Hicks read the next piper, in which he pleidcd for prohibition—nol for imperial prohibition ; the country was not ready for it. .Some localities were ready, but not the country at large. Prohibition could not prohibit without a strenuous public opinion behind it. Hie alleged failures of prohibition were generally found to be under an Imperial .Act ; but permissive prohibition was an automatic register of local opinion. It could on'y operate as soon as, and so long as, public opinion was overwhelmingly for it. It wns a crime to force ill ink shops upon localities that did not want them. They demanded the direct local veto as a simple application of the principle of self-government. From all quarters of the English speaking world, and also from Scandinavia, they had proofs that the question of prohibition by popular vote had become one of the greatest social and political problems of our time. This great controversy was in abeyance in Great Britain, but only for it while. On which side was the Church to be 1 On the side of the weak cr of the strong ? Of the tempter or the tempted ! Of the capitalist brewer or the sober and struggling working man ? Commander Bowly, R.X., in the course of his paper, observed that the people of England recognised the existence of something like an understanding and a common platform between the Chinch and "The trade," as was shown by th<; catchword of the political phrasemonger who coined the cull '•' Beer and Bible." In his opinion, the United Kingdom Allianc;, with its impossible programme of enforced total abstinence for the individual, and total suppression of the liquor traffic by the State, would never solve the question. A combination of the Alliance and party politicians was equally an impossible solution ; impossible too, was the Church of England Temperance Society, with its programme as at present constituted, without consultation with the trade, and based upon a mandate of its own, and not of the people. On the questions of the reform of the drunkard, the compensation of the publican (if through no fault of his own and en public grounds he lon his licence), the regulation of clubs and closing, there were unquestionably points of agreement between the Church and the trade. They might go further, and maintain that the Church of England and the licensed trade agreed that the " sobeii/ation " of the country would be eU'ected with greater credit, with greater ccttuiuty, villi greater surety of enduring result by moral suasion rather than by Act of Parliament or compulsory legislation. This be called the ideal "Beer and Bible" alliance. It would not discredit the Church, and the trade would he as proud and as worthy of it. The Dean of Hereford confined hiuise'f to the system of tied houses, which a former chairman of a licensed victuallers.' society had termed "one of the most grinding, tyrannical, and demoralising systems that ever existed in this country.' - A few weeks ago a tavern in Liverpool was put up for sale with the reserve price of £1'2,.~>0(). It was knocked down for £'2S,'2oo. At Plymouth 000 out of (>•")() bouses were tied to 'JO (inns and iu the county of Surrey, outside the metropolitan area, five-sixths of the houses were tied. In Cheshire fouriifths was the proportion ; and as a rule, the publican to whom the license was

granted was not even a bum'-jhlc tenant. but a mere servant, or bondsman. The clerk to the Magistrates at Hull, after nine years' experience, said that in his experience there had been only one conviction against a free house, that there had been 91 out of 10.'> transfers among the tied houses, and that tie latter weie of till inferior class to the free houses. Mr Justice Cave at Ilia Chester assizes had denounced the practice of owners who seized the unearned increments of business created by the tenants as " outrageous and monstrous." Legislat : on was needed, but the Crewe justices had shown that .something could be done, even under the cxi-ting law, as, notwithstanding the opposition of the breweis, they had insisted on examining the conditions of tenure on every application. Mr J. J. Coekshott, chairman of the Liveipool branch of the Church of England Temperance Society, held that the policy of that society ought to attract to its standard all temperance reformers who were not " prohibitionist'." After giving statistics of the inflated prices of tied houses, and showing tint within U'oO yards of the Liverpool Seamen's Home there were 110 public houses, he stated that the Church of England Temperance Society by its central council had supported Sir W. Harcourt's amended Veto Bill, which never reached a second reading.