The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 182, 11 June 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1879.

Armies of teetotallers, rechabites, and good templars have been fighting for Temperance through several consecutive generations, and yet, apparently, there is no diminution of the consumption of alcoholic liquor's, nor have the societies to which we allude perceptibly combatted the evils of intoxication

throughout the civilized world. The demon drink lias been compared by an eminent teetotaller to the ' upas tree,' and while admitting the force of the comparison, we would go a step farther, and point out that temperance organizations have for many a year been prun-

ing off twigs all over the tree, and that the logical consequence of such a method of attack has been not to kill the stem and branches, but to make them grow more vigorously and 'bear bigger fruit, It is thought now in New Zealand that by limiting the number of publichouses; by raising license fees, by an unwise local option bill, or a still more foolish permissive bill, a. few more twigs may be lopped off the tree, and it is probable that in the ensuing session of Parliament legislation will be again invoked to promote temperance. We would be glad if legislation could respond to the appeal, But wo, fear that if even despotic power were placed in tlic hands of that hater of all good liquor—Sir William Fox—he would utterly fail to reform the drinking habits of the colony. The cause of excessive drinking must be removed before a remedy can be applied, We regard the desire for alcoholic stimulants as a diseased organization, and believe that an assembly of doctors could do more

towards curing the evil tlwn a synod , of cither good templars or politicians, i We believe that a medical commission, 1 appointed to report on the liquor traffic, would do moro to promote temperance, provided their advice were carried out, than any other speoific,. 'All is vanity,' the old cry of the preacher has been changed, in modern days, to 'All is sanity, and the sane mind in the sane body is the grand 'dcsideratim of the 19th century. We think if M.D.'s were allowed to take the place of M.H.R's when the liquor question comes on again for discussion, there would follow several advantages which Would go a long way towards attacking,, not the sprigs and twigs of the '.upas : tree, but its root. What we. want is pure liquor for those who will continue to use alcoholic drinks- a cheap wholesome wine substituted for expensive unwholesome spirits. It is not by shutting off drink from a man that he becomes temperate, guiding him from a dangerous to a comparatively innocuous liquor is a much safer plan, It is by means such as these that we believe the medical profession would sap the foundations of intemperance. Not by restrictive measures which have been tried a dozen times in a dozen different countries, and have in the long run proved utter failures, but by a transfusion of a healthier liquid in the system which will tend to satisfy the organic craving without being fatal to the organic tissue. It is not by haeping pains and [penalties on publicans that drinking will be stayed. All such artificial restrictions are the primary causes of the immense amount of impuvo liquor sold in the colony. Killing the publicans will not kill drinking. ' The thirst which from the soul doth rise' is the thing that has to be quenched, and it is that which temperance advocates should direct their attention to. The time will yet come when drunkenness will be regarded as a disease, and treated as such. It is not the policeman or the magistrate who is required to restrain intoxication but the doctor. The time will come when a drunkard will not be carried off to a lock-up but to the hospital for intoxicants, and when he wakes up from his debauch in the morning, will not bo dragged trembling and shivering before a magistrate, but find himself comfortably in bed in a ward, waited on by a nurse, and attended to by a physician, who will not let the patient go again till by a course of medicine lie has removed or mitigated the disease ! which caused the offender to commit • excesses.