The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1882. THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1230, 15 November 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1882. THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA.

We have heard, of late days, so much evil about Russia in connection with, Jewish persecutions that it is pleasant to be .able to learn better and brighter tidings from that great cluster of nationalities, Madame Novikoff publishes in the September number of the " Nineteenth Century" an article under the above heading, which is calculate!! to raise a sentiment of admiration in our breasts for the Russian people. The writer admits that drink is the master-passion and besetting sin of her countrymen, but pleads that the climate of Russia accounts for the ; apparent excessive consumption ,over other countries, The consumption of spirits per head of population in Russia is double that of England, • biit 'on the other hand it may be said' that the Briton drinks five; times as much .beer as the Russ, One of the first Acts of the new reign, however, has been an attempt to grapple with the evil by the initiation of a grand temperance movement, The Minister of Finance, acting under the instruction of the Gzar, appointed a commission to decide what stops should be taken to prevent the abuse of the. spirit traffic. The result of this commission, ,which has been ' in ' communication with all, parts of the Empire, and has' the'"sympathetic assistance of many thousand village, communes,,is summed up as follows: (1) Liberty to the communes to close all places for the sale ,of drink within the communal limits. (2) Permission to be given to the communes to establish c'omimina} monopolies of the sale of drink/ (3) No public-houses to be ; established abf)ve ,25 per ooj)t, jji excess of one per thousand of the, population' i 'arid that only, with the consent of the! i Zemstvo, v '(ij 'Tea and food to be sold ■ at all places where drink is consumed on the:: (s).Licenses, to be; granted by contract, and the price in excess of the minimum fixed by law to be divided according to' the wants of the agricultural populations. (6) Rigorous supervision of the public-houses by the local authorities; and last, but not Jeast, no Talmudist Jews to be allowed to keep a shop for the sale of drink. The Temperance party in New Zealand 'must,- we think,.'admit' that jieijr Russian brethren are marching ahead of them. The latter certainly have sin 'advantage in tjhe'way of 6o'- ; vernment support; Tlje ministry propose to legalise the Temperance Associations and Parochial! Protection Societies. It may be asked what,is a Parochial Protection Society ? It is . a most formidable temperance weapon I Its members (many of these Societies are already in working ord«r) visit drinking places, and if they find a drunken man they conduct him to his home and admonish him privately. On the second occasion the r admonition assumes a public character, and on the. third a fine is. The ! Russian . Minister '. of j finance, ,sfyo heads the movement, is