TEMPERNCE ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4424, 20 May 1893, Page 2

TEMPERNCE ITEMS.

The Bishop of London, spanking it the annual meeting of the West London Band of Hope Union, contrasted the position of the Temperance niovement now oecoupied, as compared with sixty years ago. To-day there were few intelligent men who did not sympathise with them, They had conquered t!io opposition of the clergy; they had almost conquered the opposition of the medical men; and they had convinced evenCinsurgnco agents that Temperance men live longer, on an average, than.thoso who use intoxicants.

A Frenoh Deputy, in the hope of reducing drunkenness, suggests that the manufactnin oi iutoxicatinz drinks should be a Government monopoly, which would yield £40,000,000 a year. The artiole would be genuine, whereas much of the drunkenness today is caused by the stuff which is fraudulently palmed off upon people. It is now regarded as certain that tho British Government Committee on habitual drunkards, will recommend the adoption of compulsory detention, the maximum limit being two years. Mr E Gladstone has.explained in the House of Commons that no farther legislaiion on the lonafide traveller question was considered necessary, it having beeu laid down by four judges that people who make a journey to get a drink are not bona fide travel' lors. The Metropolitan Asylum Board, like many poor-law guardians, oon« tinues to spend large sums upon in* toxioants for tho use of the inmates. The County Counoil, on the other hand, do not supply^UytfiV--'' - their control with inJa|H, _ In honour of Miss Frances Willard it ia proposed to erect in Chicago a 1 Willard Fountain,' which is to be the gift to that city from children nllover the world cooneoted with the Tcmperunce Legion of the W.C.T.U. The design represents a little child offering a cup of water to the multitude. A Dill will shortly become law in South Carolina which absolutely prohibits the sale of intoxicants as beverages. Under a local option clause & majority of thu freeholders in any district may procure the establishment of a State agency for the sale ol liquor under conditions which will restrict the trade to a small amount. No club may even have liquor on its premises, At the annual meeting of the Medical Association at Auckland, a contemporary reports, thero was a discussion on alcohol. The president (Dr Knight) said : "My opinion is against the prescription of alcohol in any form, and with very few exceptions I never prescribe it." In the disoussion whioh followed (in which tho utterance of Dr Knight was warmly supported) Dr Symes, of Ohristchurcb, made the following* statement:—" In my opinion, until tho medical staffs of our hospitals bavo some representation on Hospital Boards, these ovils the use ur ?'■> continue to exist. that considerable quantities of Btfuiulants havo been drawn from the Christohurch Hospital stores and never reached the patients-1 know that for certain." Publicans in a Rage, The Alhambra Theatre was the congenial bcqqo of an 'indignation meeting of licence' holders' on Monday afternoon (says the Christian World of March 7th) to protest against the Local Veto Bill. Mr Charles Walker, Chairman of the Central Board of tho Licensed Victuallers' Protection Society, and a publican, as he said, 'from boyhood! to manhood,' presided. The speeches were uncommonly bellicose. Against their stubborn vindictive, fanatical, implaoable foes, said Mr Walker, the publicans would place their backs to the wall, and their faces to tho foe, and above their heads the standard nise, and on its folds engrave in burning letters the words, "No surrender I No compromiser Legitimately enough, ho asked them to cast. their eyes abroad at tho many illicit, ohannels through whioh drink is obtained, 'Look,'he said, 'in theChristian World of theraWew wlSks, and therein you will be able to read! a graphic description of a visit to one of those drinking clubs, tboso pernicious establishments that are covering over cities, and, if not would prove to be the greatof", carso ' of modern times,' The. resolution called on theGoverarar jt i mm e d i a t 0 l y to withdraw tho Bill, Mr Beßt(Who proposed it, ore dare sho* their faceg ain if mey put their hands to suoh a disl^r •fleasuro.' He, too, denounced , e which are not mentioned in yj Bill, as they would be, he said, d Government were honest in its Temperance professions, Mr 0. Deakin hoped they would nail their colours to the mast, and while two planks held together fight to the bitter end, and if they were to sink in the battle, 'let them go down like men, with their faceß to the foe.' the publioans carried the resolution with wild oheering. MrS. H.Baker who supported an tppealto Mtijftrs of tho House to reject the Bill,18(led Sir William Harcourt the'political Barabbag o! 1898.'