Good Advice

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 38, 21 September 1905, Page 1

Good Advice

By an easy association of ideas, the fate of the ' Mikasa ' reminds us of the old Spanish proverb which, being interpreted, runneth thus • ' Bacchus has drowned more than Neptune.' (Be it known to those who own nod an acquaintance with Lempricre, that Bacchus is the god of vine, and Neptune the god of the sea). The Executive ot the Nelson Licensed Victuallers,' Association deserve commendation for the stand that they have

taken lit oraer to reduce the number of the victims of Bacchus. They urge the strict observance of the civil law and the canons of resoeetability in the conduct of their business and threaten with a Vigilance Committee the scallywags of the trade who supply drink to the partly intoxicated person and to the heady toper who (in tho words of the old English ballad) ' Gets on a s|uee, And goes bobbing around.' AH this is commendable, provided that it represents a serious and permanent crusade against the grave abuses which it professes to combat. We have said full many a timo-^and hero repeat — that the real leaders of the Prohibition-withoiU -compensation movement are those licensed victuallers who defy the laws of God and man in their sordid hunt for shekels. Such guilty gold can never bring a blessing. And the heaviest blows of ' the butt-end of the law ' are punishment all too light for tho itching palm that closes on tho coin of the swiller who has laden himself with more of the flowing bowl than befits his manlibod. It matters little in principle here whether the alcohol that constitutes the chief element of attraction in tho taper's swill is or is not a poison. E\ery controversial Johnny Raw can decide this knotty scientific question out of hand. But the doctor and the chemist cannot^— just yet. So we'd better bide a wee before wo dogmatise- upon the point. Dr. C. M. Douglas holds the non-poison theory. But, in 'Public Opinion' of August 4 he iwges peo,plo to look upon alcohol ' as a doubtful luxury, to bo used sparingly and moderately, and under exceptional circumstances as a medicine to supply the want of, or tho inability to assimilate, nourishing food.' And he entreats ' that girls should never or hardly ever 'drink alcohol, even in a comparatively mild form, and that distilled liquors should never find a place amongst a young man's beverages. To youthful blood and brain it is,' he adds, 'as poison, destructive as vitriol to steel.' 'It has its place,' says ' Mr. Dooley,' ' but its placo is not m a man's head- For some, total abstinence is a precept of necessity , for others, it is a counsel of perfection.