The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1884. TEMPERANCE V. TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1801, 30 September 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1884. TEMPERANCE V. TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

The Eev, H. Vbre White, M.A. formerly curate of Greytown, has forwarded us a copy of a pamphlet under the above heading. The author is one of the most thoughtful essayists in the colony, and though on this occasion he lias taken up a subject on which it is difficult to throw any new light, his treatment of it is of some special interest as it gives openly and candidly the reasons which have induced him personally to decline joining the Blue Ribbon Army or other temperance 1 organisation. He holds that drunkeness can be best fought indirectly, and tlißt all forces for good in existence are at work against it. The tendency of these forces is undoubtedly to bring about moderation in the consumption of alcoholic drinks, and this is the goal which ho has in view, Drunkenes, he claims, is on the decrease, and this hopeful condition is the result more of the universal forces for good than of the direct assaults of temperance re- ; formers. Ho fairly proves at some length, that general and specific experiences are against the wisdom of adopting the total abstinence principle, but the point which he seems to miss is that while the principle of total 1 abstinence may be unsound for the a community as a whole, it is for a [ section of the community thoroughly I sound and incontrovertible. There are • in the colony a large percentage of ; persons, possibly ten thousand in ; number, who cannot be brought or i trained to moderation in the use of • intoxicating liquors. Those who go B amongst such men to reform them know by absolute experience which } cannot be gainsaid that total abstinence is the only weapon that will deal effectually with such cases, and that any attempt to bring them into a stage of moderate drinkjng would be unmitigated foolishness. Now, while the Rev. H, Vere White's prinoiple is '. applicable to perhaps a hundred ?' thousand adults in the colony, it is fatal to some ten thousand who have f developed a diseased craving which ( . it js almost impossible to eradicate, mid which can only lie maintained in a latent condition by total abstinence, The real difficulty is to any what 1( should be doui j with these ousua which fill our gnols mid asylum, nnrl poujon a homo lil'u, If tliu lluv, IT, Veil*, | J WHITE can show us how the diseased.

craving when once acquired can be removed by other means than those used by the Blue Ribbon Army he will do good service. His principle is all right for the " ninety and nine" in the fold, but it is useless as appliod to the stray sheep which liavo to be brought back to it, The Blue Ribbon Army bring them back, and we would say all honor to the Army for this work which it accomplishes. Wo do not jsee the advocates of moderation bringing tliem buck, but we should be very glad to hear that they are attempting the task. i '