Correspondence. Corespondents' opinions are not necessarily ours. "INEBRIATES INSTITUTIONS ACT, 1898."

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 9, 17 June 1899, Page 2

Correspondence. Corespondents' opinions are not necessarily ours. "INEBRIATES INSTITUTIONS ACT, 1898."

(to the editor.) Sir, — Yom leader of the Sth inst. relating to the passage of the above through the British House of Commons leeently, with your explanation of the measuie, was highly mtetestinjr and conveyed to your leaders news of no mean older. Mr Blown has shown a wonderful lack of knowledge of jjassing events lelating to matters appertaining to his pet hobby, and one wonders at the want of perception be shows in not undeistanding your very plain statement of the diffeience between the BiUish and the New Zealand Acts. Suiely he should show some little mental qualification before assuming the ' role of " guide, philosopher and friend " | to confiding electors of Waitaki. That the measuie will be of great benefit there ' can be veiy little doubt, and it is to be ! hoped the New Zealand measure may soon | be amended and enforced on the linos of | the British one. The tiend of medical ■ opinion has set strongly in favour of the Inebnate asylums as a step towards a thoioughly scientific investigation of the causes which lead to alcoholic excess and \ as a means whereby the dipsomaniac may i be studied and cured. Dr H. J. Bowditch, I a prominent Ameiican physician, in his pamphlet " Intempeiaaee in the Light of | Gosune Laws, embodied in the third annual report of the State Board of Htalth of Massachusetts, says :—": — " How Bhall 1 we-freat the,druukard ? I think that the I drunkard h»s beeu treated at times 'with a*great deal too much of false sentimentality* Every young man should be taught '

to fee] that, in getting chunk, be violator one of the honest Bocial laws. He degiatfes himself lower than the brute, and should be heated, for the time being, n,«? one lowei than man. I should not. however, be vindictive, but would put foifcii a helping hand to support him when he uses. Tins I would do again and again if need be, until I was convinced that he was a leal dipsomaniac — a man risane foi dunlw Then I xwuild for a time dfprive him oi his libeity, and he shouid lie placed in an inebiiate asylum. Jn t) c piesent condition of our country, M,tsf- n - chusetts should have seveial inebiiatc asylums. Over these asylums should be put men wise and humane, but ihm of purpose. Under that suneillance the victim should lemain until he had gained sufficient moral power to enable b;in to govern his appetite. He must be cured oi his disease as he would be of any maiadv in a public hospital " If thp;s asylums were established, and the coiuts ha i power to enfoice the law, just in the same way as other offences aie pioceeded against, theie can be no doubt of the de'e.ient effect it would have. The fear of the Jaw would straighten up many a peiFon who' cares nothing for paltry fines and pioh - bition oideis. Prohibitionists axe not satisfied with scientific methods to get at the causes of intemperance, they look to legal enactments to auppiess ~\\lfaiTDr" Bowdftcu* contends ia'orieof the 1 " "rfi ongesfc of human instincts." He says m tbe before-mentioned leport " Wii! Total At - stinence ever prevail nniversallv ? As ] consider the love of stimulants a human instinct, which is seen wbeiever nun live*. I cannot believe in the possibility of its suppiession. It may be modified and regulated by thf moral sense and by law when the gratification of that inbtinefr in tei feres with the good order of society, but it cannot be by any means extinguished, prohibited. It lests upon a great cosmic law which cannot be annihilated by any puny effort of oms. The sun regulates that law as h& regulates those of the seasons. We maj modify its power and save onrselves by proper effoits from its effects, but thre'< tendency" will remain forever. In thepresence of that really fearful law all 1 Maine Laws " seem to me utterly powerless." It is to be > __hr>ped our legislators will not TuTbJincled and fiignteneci by"ffiff\ ravings' of*'th.o?e'*amongs{ us who imperfectly understand and who have httie opportunity of getting at facts so as to forai a fair and reasonable judgment on the merits of prohibitory laws. Thanking you in anticipation, I am, etc., J. B. MiiiSOii.