WINE-DRINKING.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1888, Page 2

WINE-DRINKING.

(To the Editor.) Sra r -In your issue of Thursday last;, Mr J. Wendell had'a long letter, in which he indulged in strong language because facilities are not given for flooding the city wjth wineshops. , ... Mr Wendel knew years ago that it was unlawful to sell wine by the bottle, as happily this city had kept free from the curse of bottle licenses. Just before the local option vote came into force, in conversation with myself one day, Mr Wendel said, ''Now you will see wft shall have bottle licenses, and Npw Zealand wine will be freely sold." I replied that I did nQb think it would be, and so events have, proved. . There appears t<? be eopio confqsion va, Mr Wendell letter, If, as he states in owe part, the wine he inakea is non-into*ieating, neither the lie&naing lawa nor Sergeant Gamble would hinder it» sale. If ginger wins, is 15Q per cent, more Intoxicating than Mr Wendell wines, it is high time that Sergeant Gamble stopped its sale outside «f licensed premises. Says Mr Wendel: "On the continent of Europe, where light wines lorra an essential part of. the regular aliment of the peasantry, drunkenness ia a. vice practically unknown." , ... Science demonstrates that wine v not an aliment, i.e., a nourishing food j the grape is. God Rave the clustering vine; Ingenious man, perverse. Exchanged the boon for wme— A blessing for a curse. The Rev. E. S. Lacy, of San Francisco, who was of opinion that vrine culture in California and its general increase would be a public good, spent six months in Switzerland, and had his opinions rudely shattered by what he caw. He writes :—" I have just spent six months iv Switzerland, where the people do notihivp but work in their vineyards, where wine ls'ciieap and pure, where none think of making a dinner without a bottle of wine. Here snore Intoxication was obvious than in any other place it was ever my lot to live in. On holidays and festal occasions you might suppose all the male population drunk, so great are the numbers in this deranged or beastly condition.'' \Ybat wrote the late Charles Dickens ? It ia Veil known that he was no fanatical prohibitionist : — "The wine shops are the colleges and chapels of tjhe poor in France. History, morals, politics, jurisprudence, and literature, in iniquitous forme, are all taught in these colleges and chapele. The wine-shops breed, in a physical atmosphere of malaria, and a moral pestilence of envy and vengeance, the men of crime and revolution. Hunger is proverbially a bad counsellor, but drink is a worse."

Similar evidence might be given for other parts of the continent of Europe. It ie alleged that this indigenous wine will kill the fcasto for the more fiery a;»d ardent article. That allegation is nob foorne out by facts. An Amorican missionary, resident afe Constantinople, writes; "Tbe prevalence of drunkenness ijpon pure wjno has been on the increaso for some years past. It is a matter of regret that the poor German farmers settled in° Moldavia should have entered upon a tield of industry (winegrowing), promising in pecuniary results, but so ruinous in its moral bearings. The number of winehouses and cellars has been on a most alarming increase since wine has become indigenous." Villerme wrote, "Drunkenness ie the greatest curse of the labouring classes in France. Wine, especially tho common country wine, does not stimulate them enough ; it only serves to give them an appetite for eomething stronger, which they find in their own brandy." Did not our own Liberal chieftain, W, J3. Gladstone, by Ms Wine Licensing JBill expect to cure drunkenness by encouraging the use of light wines? With what result let the Rev. Charles Garrett say— " This Bill has inflicted a greater iujury on i the women and homes of this country than any measure ever passed. It has gone to the very ropte of tbe national life, and pro* duced evils of the direst kind. Designed to wean men from the public-house, it has been its great feeder, and as the result we harepubfic-houeescrowdedwith women,and pur police returns show fc bat the apprehenr sions of women for drunkenness are rapidly increasing." Recently, we iiad an ernption of wine shops in this city., Was. their influence beneficial ? Far from it. Although only a few weeks, in operation, the police had to close one, one evening, owing to a drunken squabble. One cannot help regretting that grapes are so dear retail, when Mr Wendel buys theni at 2d per lb. Perhaps ono result from his letter will bo that they will be procurable afc a lower price than formerly. Happily, the ratepayers throughout the colony have some measure of legal power to prevent interested persons flooding the land with evils, as expressed by Mr Gladstone, more terrible than those flowing from war, pestilence and famine. As the local option vote will soon be taken, I would emphasise Mr Wendel's Closing remarka, '"The decision rests with the people themselves. Let them be guided by sound common sense and a dispassionate review of the facts." Apologising for the unavoidable length of this letter, lam, etc., , B. Frexch. ... .I. m • i