UNNECESSARY EXAGGERATIONS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12647, 7 November 1905, Page 7

UNNECESSARY EXAGGERATIONS.

To the OEditor,

Sir, —'I was much surprised and imitated at the missbatements, exaggerations, and unjust made recently by certain advocates off the NoLicense cause. One of the charges was tlhat ©very puWiwari As a sly grog-seller, •and keeps t!he law only -because ihe must. Another, tJhat the families of hotelkeepers were <a disgrace to them. A /term was also applied to the liquoreelling class which itfas. as insulting as it ■was incorrect. The term I allude to "tvias " Red-nosed 'Publicans," used by the American lecturer. Now, surely a good cause can never need incorrect statements, sweeping assertions, and insulting epithets to substantiate it. 'ATbuee is never argument; ib as rather a confession of weakness —not necessarily of the cause advocated, but of the advocates reasoning powers—or moral perceptions. The statement that all liquorsellers are sly-grog sellers, and only keep the law because they fear the law, may possible be true of America, but is not so of New Zealand. J have myself lived in hotels that were conducted in a most exemplary manner. The statement that the families of (hotel-keepers are a disgrace to them ds nothing less than a cruel libel on the class. Certainly a far larger proportion o_f the Children of hotel-keepers turn out 'badly than the children of other trades people, and considering the terrible temptations they are daily exposed to it ds not surprising. Exaggerations such as these will prdba'bly lose rthe cause of No-License hundreds of votes. As <& mattter of fact, the personal element of the liquor-selling 'business iis by no means a-ruling factor in the debatealble question of. its good or evil influence. The mam who sells may or may not (baa conscientious man, ibut the stuff sold is always bad—toad even in its pure, unadulterated, undrugged statte, and its effects always ihave been and always will ibe ibad. If & detachment of angels came down and took up the running of our hotels evil ■would still eventuate. It could not help it. Possibly the grosser and more obvious effects - would not eb apparent, drunkenness would be less common,-but alcohol- would still go, in the terrible volition of all similar poisons, to work its deadly will upon the nerve centres of h union bodies, maikang them an eager prey to the (thousand and-one maladies iwhich are eagerly awaiting like carrion (birds to feast upon the weakened tissue. iAn honeslb ipuhlican may take all sorts of precautions to insure* that this business is carried on respeotalbly, 'but, try as he may, it will 'always work havoc in the raw humanity for males around him. The only really effectual way is l to turn off the taps.—l aim, etc., (PAIR PLAY. Wanganui, (November 6, 1905.