Temperance Column.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 225, 5 July 1902, Page 1

Temperance Column.

fASVERTIBBMENT.]

(Published by arrangement). Stipendiary Magistrates AND i'he Drink Evil. STRONG BTAIEMENTB. Mr BEETHA.M SPEAKS O'JT,' Our New Zealand Magistrates Imvq not hitherto been noted aa opponent* oC the liquor traftic. Occupants of the Bnoh h»v». ! %«pl known to favour tho redflctloli' »f * minimum fine which thoy wore oompeltet to inflict on a law-defying grog; selStr-* to fine a sly grog-seller less for his thirl breach of the licensing law than ha paid for his first—to lecture temperate* reformers on the enormity of the prohibition idea, and have taken pains, almost, to emphasise that they are guiltless of any leaning towards " teetotal fanaticism." That is Point One. From this body of men now cctne words of alarm, of remonstrance, of denunciation, and the object which tails them forth is-THE LIQUO « TRAFFIC Not a voice here or there only, but from Auckland to Invercargil', an almost general voice from tho Magiateria Benoh! Day by day our journals record the utterance of this or that B.M. on tha alarming increise of drunkenness, the great number of prohibition orders, Mm awful youthfal drunkenness, the crime born of liquor, and so on. Cluthl is excepted. This column contained l«st week 6 number of these Magisterial utterance*. We now add here yet one mow. Remember point one. Mr Beetham, S.M., made some very strong remarks from the Magisterial Bench on Tuesday on the prevalence of drinking habits (says the Lyttelton Tinns). He was dealing wilh a case of family troubles caused solely by the drinking habits of the father, who was shown to have dissipated a large estate in a very short time. After reading the erring father a severe lecture, Mr Beetham remarktd that tho hearing •( such cases as that bef jre him was enough to make him turn prohibitionist. He 'wis nob a prohibitionist, and parhiipa he ! never would be, but the awful tales he heard almost daily of distress and poverty caused by drink made him st least think that some system of prohibition might be beneficial.

Whab does it all mean ? It mews that we have our own licensed, supervised, publicly sanctioned liqnor traflU condemned by our calm Magisterial voices on the evidence, as it has been far years by earnest men with hot enthauiam in the cau e of social reform. The Magisterial verdict is that W» have in New Zealand—- ' INCREASING DRUNKENNESS YOUTHFUL DRUNKENNESS DIUNK-CREATED CRIME DRINK-CREATED POVERTY. This is Point Two. At some time during the next sit months YOU will be ashed to saj if these things shall continue. This is Point Three.