THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4064, 16 March 1892, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Publiftei by the courtesy of the Editor of Waikmpa BAily Times, undertk\ ■ awpices of the New Zealand Alliance for the prohibitim of the lijuoH frajtc, ATasfcrfoii liuiiKiry. When ratepayers demand the entire cx~ Unction of tdl placet for the sale o, liquors, Iheirpmyershould begranted —Charles Buxton, Brewer. [Communications lor this column must be addressed to" The Prohibitionist," caro of Editor of Wamakapa Daih Times.] In regard to publican's profits, says the Melbourne Daily Telegraph 3Worn testimony in the Geelong arbitration cases, when Mrs Mary Ann Linney, of Dunn's Club Hotel, stated (hat she paid £2 for « barrel of beer, which she retailed for £5 ; whiskey cost her 1 21s per gallon, and realised 68s. Upon being asked for more explicit information, she said that a pint of whiskey represented 14 nobblers at Gd each, and that yielded £2 16s per gallon. Mr Smyth reminded her that this amount was less than she first stated, whereupon the witness innocently replied that" water has to be accounted for." Mr W. M'Mullen, who repre* sented the wholesale spirit trade, said that when the spirit merchant put in tho water he sold whisky at lis M per gallon, and brandy at 18s Gd, which realised when sold over the bar about 48s per gallon. Mr B. Young, another licensee, confirmed this testimony, Mr li, B. Hodges, the brewer, supplied the following sliding scale of profits on a burrel- of the fluid to the retailer. Abarrel of beer, costing £2, sold at 3d per pint, would yield a profit ol£\ 12s; sold in jugsfl 7s 6d; small glasses, £6 ; and iu peny glasses, £l4. Mr J. J. Trait, a wholesale expert, said the average profit on all spirits to tho publican was 179 per cent, Mr Thomas Green, of the Grown Hotel, avoraged his profits on all liquors at 150 per cent. The publicans have no reason co punish the consumer if the 2d per gallon is imposed, but the men who have taken up the question in the Assembly are not likely to be deterred by the consideration, even if tho consumer had to pay half a farthing n glass extra. The Temperance party are under skilful guidance. Their vote is more solid than that of any other combination in Parliament; and with the example of England before them, where the duty. is Gs 3d per barrel, the Government will find it difficult to resist the appeal,

Dr, Clouston, in a report published in tho True Thinker, has given an alarming illustration of the fact, showing the increase in tho number of cases of senile madness—i,e,, in other words, showing that the brain is going faster in each decade—because the strain terminates in madness much earlier. The beginning of tho whole evil, considered as a chain of physical causation, is in the action oi alcohol upon nerve and brain, cell. From the minutest excitation of the smallest dose to the madness of delirium and the imbecility of senile insanity there is no missing link. We can no more elude the eternal law in little than in large, The cumulative evils of society are the exact measure of its transgressions, and penalties must correspondingly follow disobedience to the end of time,

The Chief Commissioner of Police in Victoria says:—".After careful observation, 1 am convinced that the general tendency of our licensing is towards increasing national sobriety, With regard to Sunday trading, there has been a noticeable and growing regard mid to the law by publicans, Bhnday traffic is still carried on, but the vigilance oE the police has made offending persons very cautious in conducting tlio same."

The great source of sooial crime is drink, The great cause of poverty is drink. When I hear of a family broken up, find ask the oatißO—drink, If Igo to the gallows and ask its victim the cause, the answer—drink. Then I ask myself in perfect wonderment, why do men not put a stop to this thing? Our legislators will come together and • paß3 every- measure necessary to the welfare of the people, and yet pass laws sanctioning the sale ol liquor.

Mr "W, S. Caine, writing from India to the Pall Mall Gazette, says;—" The Madras Government appear to havo taken some what to heart the censure of the House of Commons on the excise policy for India, for they have during the last financial year reduced the number of spirit shops throughout the Presidency from 17,261 to 14,604 and the toddy shops from 26,180 to 21,684, giving a total reduction during the year of no less than 7098 liquor shops. They promise a somewhat similar reduction during the present financial year Several influential Hindoos have been writing to the Madras papers, pointing out that ' Hinduism most strongly favours the cause • of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors; it most forcibly condemns the pernicious habits of drinking wiuo, which is classed by the graat Aryan lawgivers among the five most horrible sins —Paraeara Jlaharshi, the re* nowned legislator of the proaent Kali age, stating that ovon an occasional taste of wine by a person will ruin him both in this world and in the other." But the Madias Times while admitting the verbal acciutacy of the statement, maintains that the condemned practice is still persisted in, and contends that ' the drink battle must be fought out, not in Blue Books and Legislative Councils, but in the villages of India, by earnest men and women full of the spirit of true reform.'"