THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3902, 2 September 1891, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Published by the courtesy of the Editor of WairarapaDaVy under the auspices of the New Zealand Alliance for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, Masterton Auxiliary. When ratepayers demand the entire extinction of all places for the sale of liquorstheir prayer should be granted. — Charles Buxton, Brewer. [Communications tor this column must be addressed to "The Prohibitionist, are of Editor of Wairabapa Daily.]

During the recent Licensing Elec- j ion a paid advocate of the publican c nterest raised the question, " What a will the electors get by voting for the 0 Prohibitionists ? ' The answer given j ;o this question by the Publican j jarty was that the public would get r iothing j on the other hand the jlectors by voting for tbe Publican party would gain much. The valid- t ity of the argument that the perpetu- „ ition of the liquor traffic would be a t gain to the community may be tested in a very simple way by an appeal to the facts of our social history in the Wellington province during the last two weeks. The record of what the community has " gained" by the perpetuation of the liquor traffic is written in letters of blood. There 1 has been silence in this column dur- \ ing the last two weeks. There was little need for us to speak in words of ' condemnation of the alcohol evil when the liquor traffic was so busy revealing itself as an anti-social scosrgeofadeadly character. The mangled remains of the last fortnight's drink victims of the liquor traffic have been exposed to the public gaze and the awful speotaclehas awakened feelings of horror and detestation against the traffic in the breasts of many who were formerly indifferent. We submit that such terrible results of the liquor traffic as the following to be noted, clearly convicts the man who pleads for the perpetuation of the liquor traffic on the ground of its being a gain to the community, of ignorance or inhumanity : such a man must he strangely stupid or utterly heartless. The Death Kecord of our provincial liquor traffic during the last two weeks opens with the following scene: —On the 18th August a James Mackie, in a stale of mental and moral insanity through drink, jumps off the Wellington wharf with the object of ending his " miserable existence." Before attempting self murder he writes to the Resident Magistrate " Life is not worth living. lam tired of it. At the pric<* it costs me I think it ib veiy dear." The poor wretch, however, was frustrated in b.s intention of destruction. He was fished out of the water, made sober by Act of Parliament, and is now experiencing the curative treatmentofiler gaol. The second scone in this Death Play takes us to the Manawatu railway line near Foxton. On the night of the 17th August a man is seen wandering about in a stale of madness or stupidity through drink. In his insane condition he selects the railway line as his sleeping place. The night train comes along. The engine driver feels a jolt, sees something white on the line, and thinks that he has run over the carcase of a sheep. When the sun rises the body of the drink victim is discovered fearfully mangled as though torn to pieces by savage beasts. The third scene in this horrible series of tragedies takes us back to Wellington. For some time the public had been exercised about the disappearance of a well known surveyor of Palmerston. Tiie man had fallen in Wellington a victim to the alcohol scourge, and the worst was dreaded about his fate. The 24th day of August brought the solution of the mystery. The dead body was found on the beaoh in a " terrible condition, the features being unrecognisable on account ofthe flesh haying been eaten away by fish." A bottle of whiskey was found in one of his pockets, and this speaks louder than words of the cause of his death. Two days pass away and a fourth chapter is added to this record of death. On the 26th August another drink victim is found in the Wellington 'Harbour. This new story is told in a few words. A country settler goes to Wellington to transact some business in the Land Office. He is liberally supplied with drink at the hotels. He is last seen drinking in the streets about one o'clock in the morning. A day passes away and the dead body of the victim is fished out of the water. Such is the death

record of the liquor traffice given in two or three issues of the Evening Post. St is curious to notice the indifference with which the mass of newspaper Editors treat these awful stories of ruined lives. They evidently look upon such things as being like the bilge water in a shipinseparable from our present condition of life. If a case of small-pox was reported in Wellington, fear would run through the colony, and our able Editors would be all alive to their duty, But here is a scourge ten thousand times worse than smallpox, actually in a day or two sweeping man after man into a horrible I grave, and. the able Editors take these filings as a matter of course. They have nothing to say, and intelligent jurymen are of the opinion that the unprotected state of the Wellington Quay is the cause on this occasion of the loss of life 1 What has been going on in our province during the last two weeks is going on all the 7 jar round throughout the cplpny. We nave passed by the pauper and the criminal record of the period we are discussing. We ask the readers of the Wai~ rarapa Daily to think of the widows, children, and relatives of those social wrecks whose end we hj,ve described, and see in them the BprV "qf J? gajn'''' that we as a community reap from Jhe liquor trasc. The license fees amount to about pne farthing a month to each inhabitant tyeknow where the money nays these license feed comes from, ft pomes in a vast number of cases put pf the pockets of men who are qualifying themselves for a poor-house or prison, or a suicide's grave. A number of years ago a report was spread abroad that & Christian Church had received a gift of money from the slave owners in South America. .The report was unfounded, but it is said a good deal for the sound moral feeling of the community vjheri the cry was at pnpe raised "senj back tne blood money J" | The people rejected with loathing! tne idea receding mqiiey from men who trafficked ji> §unjan flesh and biaod.' At present a man may plead the claims of the liquor traffic and point to the license feea as an all powerful bribe for votes and not be hissed off the platform. At present! we say he can do so ; but in the | near future he will not dare to do so. Cbfc ccales have fallen from the eyes jf'ihanV'cltfeens. Tfcfcycee that the ] ieeuse'fees are little better than money. They are beginning to articulate their feelings. They are saying in a whisper wkti wiP yet break into

a load burst of national moral indignation, "Away with the blood money revenue." Among certain savage tribes when a chief's house is built, slaughtered slaves are laid in pits as its foundation. It is the glory of some people who imagine that they are a long remove from savages, that our streets are formed by money spent by the drink victims as they march to a shameful and untimely end. Such glorying is only worthy of a race of savages.

Next week the ruin wrought among the Maoris and similar races by the English liquor traffickers will be discussed. We are indebted to Temperance Reformers who have just come out of the Publican camp for thrusting this matter before the gaze of the Masterton Borough Council. Tht members of the travelling public know how loathing it is to them to elbow their way into hotels through drovea of idle and drunken Maoris who lay about and drink from early morn to late at night.