ASLYM FOR INEBRIATES. (From the New Zealand Herald.)

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 248, 11 December 1873, Page 2

ASLYM FOR INEBRIATES. (From the New Zealand Herald.)

Orit contemporary, commenting upon the case of Dr Jones, *ays ; — In Melbourne, un as} lum for tlie reception and cure of dipsomaniacs lias been established for some time, and bns been found to answer admirably the purpose it was intended to subserve. It lias not only redeemed the drunkard, who but for such n •vnluable institution would have met a bornble deatli from delirium or suicide, but it bns caused many a man to bo returned to his family at least temporarily reformed, if not permanently so ; and there is the institution to receive back the unfortunate erring mortal should lio find the cru\e for drink coming on him which may cause a retapse to his former terrible vioe. The institution established in Melbourne, and others established ior the same purpose in E< gland, have been nearly self-supporting becaueo, as it unfortunately happens, there are many nieni" ber9 of tho well-oIF and "comfortable" classes who require the restraining powers conferred on these asj lums, and whose friends or relatives are both able and willing to pay for their admission and retention. The body of Good Templars, Eechabites, and Total Abstaining Socities could not direct their sympathies to n more humane object than that which we have referred to. The pledge will not always make the drunkard keep to his \ow. The 2>romise to abstain docs not prevent the desire to indulge, and the desire is oftentimes so strong as to overcome the promise, and when this is so it is invariably found that the last state of the man is worse than the first. Were he placed in an asylum where ho could not indulge in his on-i-power-ing inclination for 10 long a period that tho inclination would have ceased, there would be a chance of such a man being redeemed, and this certainly should be a strong argument for our temperance and abstaining advocates to set themselves earnestly to work in establishing so valuable a reformatory in cause cf fallen and degraded humanity. The aid of our Legislature should bo invoked on the subject. There may, as our contemporary remarks, be a cry about the expense necessary to establish such an asylum, but it may be pointed out to those who grudge the money to sa^c tome of their fellow creatures from continuing to be lost to all sense of right or wrong, that a large revenue— in fact the principal revenue of the colony — is derived from the sale and nnpoi tations of intoxicating drink. Capitalists ha\ c a duty to perform ; and it is equally clear to us that a Legislature, enabled principally to carry the business of a country by means ot a traffic that is a curse to some, it bound to pro- \ ide for those upon whom the curse happens to fall. The Good Templars cannot be engaged in a more righteous cause I linn agitating for the establishment of a home for reformed mi brinies.