The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 884, 27 September 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1881.

The temperance question is almost as insoluble as the Irish one. Almost everybody has a remedial theory, but the cures, numerous and varied though they be, never seem to touch the disease, It was a pleasure to see in Masterton on Saturday night the New Zealand Champion of Temperance, because Sir William Fox is an able speaker—an earnest speaker—and it is impossible to listen to such & man without being interested ; but when we look to him for new lights to solve the difficult problem which lias faced all thinking men for the past half century, we are doomed to disappointment. He gave us, it is true, a history of the temperance organization and its growth in this and other lands, and he informed us that the half million of people in New Zealand spent £3,000,000 per annum in alcoholic liquors, but what men who desire to test the practical result of the temperance movement would ask is " supposing there were no temperance organizations in New Zealand, would the annual expenditure for drink be incre*sed bevontl its present amount of £3.000,000?" Would it he £3,500,000 or £4,000,000? ■ Or, supposing the average annual expenditure per head be now £6, can the temperance organizations, within a reasonable time reduce it to £5 or £4 per head? If Sir William Fox could show that this could be done he would do more for the caurse he advocates than he effects by denouncing the publican, When Sir William Pox lays on the shoulders of the licensed victualler the . ruined pockets, the broken hearts, and the shattered constitutions which are associated with alcoholic indulgence, he is very far from getting at the root of the evil, He is simply scratching the surface instead of laying bare the deeper causes from which intemperance springs. Many men hold that tobacco is poison, but they never dream of calling tobacconists poisoners, and it is equally absurd for Sir William Fox to classify as murderers the retailers of strong drink, Expressions of this kind may delight members of the order who have been trained to regard the publican as a common enemv, but they- will not 'attract to the cause thoughtful and impartial men. Thousands in New Zealand would, no doubt, join the temperance army if they could be brought to understand that theyj could j by go doing materially lessen th&evils r ■. f

ofintemperance, 'The wmlc point of temperance organisations nil over tile world is that they are., won't to be " mutual admiration societies," in which individuals" compound for sins they are inclined to, by damning those they have no mend to." Temperance orators too, like Sir William Fox, call hard names, but this" breaks no bones" and slays no giants. In England the cause has been growing for fifty years, but though it possesses an army with numberless regiments, and countless companies, though it enlists recruits daily, where, may we '< ask, is the record of its victories'! Does it require a century to mature strength before it takes the field? In New Zealand, by a fluke, Sir William Fox has obtained in the Legislative a vantage ground from which, if any victory is to be won, something may be expected. He has secured Elective Licensing Benches which means practically transferring the control of public houses from the Government to the people in whose immediate locality the premises are situated, We shall watch with interest the outcome of this new phase of the temperance question, It will put total abstainers as well as publicans on their mettle, and within a few months we shall see whether it is likely to bear fruit, or to be another abortive attempt on the part of temperance reformers We trust the new principle of Elective Licensing Benches will have a fair trial, and should it be attended with any material -advantage to the canse of temperance, we shall be as much gratified as any member of the order. The Temperance Societies ol the colony have a claim on the favorable regard of the public, inasmuch as> they number in their ranks men who are generally admitted to bo steady, industrious, and law abiding. They form a section of the general community which is worthy of both respect and confidence, and there are probably few who do not wish their cause prosperity.