TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4773, 14 July 1894, Page 2

TEMPERANCE ITEMS.

At a celebration of tho lOfcli. of April in Concord, Massachusetts, 25,000 pooplo werepresonti -. Not an 1 arrest was made. No .drunkenness; was seen. No liquors are sold-in Concord,

An irrevorent writer in The Spy says: " Friends, Romans, and cetera —especially the latter—you are hereby called upon to drink to the' Eev, Bums, of Blackpool. Billy is one of the best, one of the boys. Ho has been attending'a Unitarian aud Free Christian Church Conference, and telling tho assembled pastors and masters a few healthy facts about good liquor, Said ho: ' The generous wine, the healthy beer, the ethereal spirits, founded on water, and transmuted into an essence of waters, somehow produced results among those who used thorn in temperance which panting water-drink-ing nations toiled after in vain.' Quite right, Billy. We've never seen those nations toiling in vain—or anywhere else-but we willingly take your word for it. And you're quite right about the results. Quite right, Wo've seen those who used them in temperance and other places and we've seen the results. Yes, you are quite right, Billy."

TheMWffo««««says:-"Mv John Morley, in an official aside yesterday, cast a lurid light on the state of Ireland. Mr Field wanted to know about the comparative fill-olology of of German nnd Irish spirit in the distressed country—what is the good of a Home Ruler if you don't carry it out in drinks ? And the Chief Secretary told him that about 12,000 gallons of German spirits were imported. But, ho added, of tho 8,000,000 gallons of "Irish" made 4,414,000 are consumed in the country, The population is aboutfour millions,and and there are teetotallers—represented strongly in the Honso by Mr William Johnston and Mr T.W.. Russell. Then there are shebeens; and there is potheen to be had. And the tourists cau't make much difference to the average annual gallon per head to man, woman, and child. No wonder the emigration rato goes steadily up."

" The shocking story of the fire at Clerkeuwell, on Saturday night" (says tho London Daily C-hronick), " emphasises once more the dangers of tho paraffin lamp, especially in connection with tho idiocy of drink, The lirst-lloor lodgers, man and wife, came homo drunk, and the man, of course upset tho paraffin lamp, Instantly the room was ablaze, and the couple may bless their luck that they escaped with more or less severe burns on tho face and arms. The lodgers on the second Honr, a man nnd his wife and three children, who were already in bed, were by no means so fortunate. The house burnt like matchwood, and tho whole family (except tho youngest, rescued by a bravo man) were found charred masses, The deplorable mischief lies with the pnrnfnn lamp and the drink, audit seems mere wasto of words to exclaim against the persistent follies that link themselves with both these sources of social danger,"

Mr John Burns, in addressing a crowded and enthusiasticgatheringof Government workpeople at Woolwich said: - " The last time I came to the Arsenal, a dirty, bare-footed littlcboy put into my hands, not the news of an eight hours' day having been conceded in Franco or Germany but the result of a brutal prize-fight or a race. Men of Woolwich, I have earned the right to speak plainly to you on this point. lam sorry to say wo have not got to feav so much the machinations of our employers or the indifference of Government but worse than theso is the coquetting of the forces of reaction with the betting and gambling which are eating the heart out of Woolwich andPlumstead,andtlieLabour movement everywhere. I hope the eight hour's day you have got may lead to the abolition of drink and betting, ■unci (ut the extcntioh of the" brightness, contentment, peace, and happiness of every artisan's home in Plumstcadand Woolwich."

Ihrd and World says:—"There is one small village in the south of Ireland, with 1,200 inhabitants in which there actually fifty-two licensed public-houses for the sale of strong drink. It is hardly to he wondered at that it requires thirtytwo police to keep the inhabitants of that village In order,