TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4250, 22 October 1892, Page 3

TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

At tlio annual meeting, hold last week, of the Dundeo Tcmperanco Union, Rev, J. E. Houston said that s to him it seemed there wero two things necessary for them to do. The first was to endeavour and get the Church to shake itself free from all t complicity in the drink curse, and if I there wero thoso who spoke with no bated breath on the one side, it beoamo them to speak with no bated breath on the othor side. A man 'j his congregation informed him tho other day that ho was endeavouring to drink himself to death, That man's namo was on his communion roll. He tried to seo him on the Satarday night, but failing in this, he went on the Sabbath evening, and found him, if not in a stato of delirium tremens, almost bordering upon it. w At tho close of a receufc sitting of a German circuit court, in which a heavy sheet had been dealt with, the m. Judge President drew attention to the ' fact that with ono exception all the cases coming before him that day had arisen from the brandy bottle.' It is computed that no less a sum than £15,000,000 is annually _ spent | on Sunday drinking alono, in the United Kingdom. From a merely tM economic standpoint, what a boon - would Sunday closing be to the British workman.

An American paper has an article from the British Friend, headed, " Why lie gave up the Trade." Tlio story is worth quoting as an illustration of tho havoc which liquor-selliug makes among the vendors as well as amongst the buyors;—" A young man, a spirit merchant, built a large house in the country, and was retiring from business, When he first told me of his intention, I remarked to him: 'Surely the spirit traffic is a paying business when you aro able to retire from it so soon.' 'No,' he answered, 'it is not that; I have retired from it through fear;' and then he went on to tell rao that ho was a wholesale merchant and sold to many retail dealers, He kept a diary in which he entered all tho names and ages ol his customers, and when and how they died, and he said, ' I watched with deep regret many of JT those who came in this business * gradually slipping downward. When I called on some before eleven in the morning, they were so stupefied by drink that they were scarcely able to conduct their business. One morning on looking through my diary, I was struok by the number of names I had entered there as having died suddenly through the effect of strong drink. From that moment I shut the book and resolved that I would be done with the demon that was bringing so many promising young men suddenly and early to fill a drunkard's grave."

The Western Morning News says: —" One has but to look over the pages of the Alliance News prior to and during the last general election to be struck by the great strides which Temperance Reform has taken in the interval. II is safe to say that at no previous election has the Temperance question been so prominent. Not only have only five hundred candidates declared for the Direct Veto, but many who bavo not, yet find P -themselves obliged to bring in Temperance somehow—even though it only be by way of praise of the proposals of the out-going Government," An inquest was held at Birmingham recently, on Walter Spencer, a jeweller, On Saturday evening the deceaseds wife was applying to her face a poisonous liniment for the relief of neuralgia, and the deceased, who was drunk, said," Drink it, it'll do you more good," Sho replied, "It isn't to drink, you Bolt," but he snatched up tho bottle, and saying " Here's one that will drink it," swallowed the contents, She cried out, "Then you have poisoned yourself." He rejoined, nofear.it won't poison me." But although she caused him to vomit by administering mustard and water, he got worse and had to be taken to the hospital, whero he died Boon after his admission, The bottle bore a poison label, which he had seen two daya before, when be , was sober, and he told a noighbourhe « had supposed his wife was rubbing her face with whisky. As deceased had never been known to threaten suioide, the jury returned a verdict of death from misadvonture.— Western Hominy News, October 29th;

Saltaire in Yorkshire was founded by Sir Titus Salt as a prohibition township, and has kept so all through, save for an experiment of" o2" sale, abandoned years ago, after ten years, beoause of tho disastrous results of the innovation, The town was lately the scene of another attempt to obtain a license; but the Saltaire people, who knew the benefits of Prohibition, roso in protest, and held indignation meetings, so tbat two days before the licensing session the application was withdrawn. Ik Lancet, commenting on the increase in tho National Drink Bill, Bayß the expenditure "means so much cirrhosis (a fatal disease of the liver), I Bright's disease, gout, rheumatism, employment, taking the pleasures out of the life of families, and broad out of the mouths of children." Belguim, with a population of only sis millions, baa a yearly drink bill of 135 million francs, spentprinoipally upon Geneva, by the artisan classes, And it is estimated that twenty thousand persons are annually ruined inconsequence.