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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4438, 7 June 1893, Page 2

■ In another column," 8.W," at a somewhat undiio'length' for our open column, lays down tbe position whioh he assumes on the queUiqn of ih'e liberty oi the a u'oj ec i;, *a nd ch alle rtges Criticism upon it. We: '.uke it that the lasia of his argument is that the liberty of;buying'»b'd, selling strong drink—though we ventre los.iv that the drink vended isoi en anything but sl;ong—bus resulted in giganiioevil lo ilie commonweal,- We might add to. this that ihe libei tyiof,buying and telling fcHlchers* me?t, d'ugs, tobacco, and a hundred other ai tides of common use, even millinery, for example, has resulted in gigantio evil to the commonweal, We might point even to history, and show tint the preachitig of f.ermona lias resulted in gigitntic evil, but all this is illogical, unless we discriminate between the use and (heabuse. If" 11. W." would do lliis, wo would admit e his logic, and acccpt his conclusions; but Ins p-eoiises ate too vague lo build up ihe argument 1 lie desires us to accept. It' he had'said that' ihe traffic produced the gigantic evil, his premises wonld have been clearer, but even then they could hardly be admitted, It is the t'buse of aloohol ibitMooi the real' mischief. 1 Everybody is willing to prohibit drunken-nesn,-but everybody is not wilting to prohibit the reasonable use of alcohol. Wo can aflii m that the importal ion to the old country of some len thousand' 1 haid cases" has resulted in gigantic evil to ihe ooramonweal, and this would be a fairer way of indicating iho origin of the evil than that which R.W. resorts to.