ROUND THE CORNERS

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 2497, 28 July 1893, Page 3

ROUND THE CORNERS

In the midst of all the straining after prohibition, the direct veto, and so on, in the cause of temperance, than which no one is a more hearty well wisher than myself, a v ry principal adjunot has been overlooked— the means of" reclaiming confirmed inebriates. These are sprinkled, here and there, throughout the oolony. Go where you will one or more of these poor creatures are to be met with in apparently hopeless case. Some are mere pariahs, abandoned by whilom friends and acquaintances, banned by the law, callous, degraded, hopeless ; others again just hold their own in their social straium, but have many fingers pointed at them as of the class that is going to the dogs. But they are all more or less drink besotten, slaves to the habit, and have acquired a diseased condition of mind and body. Until drink is banished from the land such cases as these will never be suppressed by political and legal procedure. They are only to be dealt with by death or else therepeutic»lly. Only the modern physician, familiar with the lateat developments of the healing art, can be of real service to such as these. # # # ■" # And of the thousand voices raised in olamor against the drink traffic not one, that I have heard of reoently, has urged the establishment of a disomaniac hospital where the drink-Btricken ones could be sent to bo nude whole. Tne benefits conferred byeuch institutions have become apparent enough where th y have been tried, and many a good man and woman, too, have been saved by their aid. At least there should be one established as centrally as possible, and controlled by the State in New Zealand. Within the last deoade a great advance has been made in dealing with alcoholic poisonIng. That marvellous Bcienoe hypnotism has been pressed into the service and has worked wonderß by the force of mere suggestion. What is termed post hypnotic suggestion— that is firßt hypnotising the subject and then tell him that he is to do something or not to do something when he is dehypnotfsed— haß been tried with marvellous effect at the mesmerio or hypnotic institutions of Europe. Drunkards have bean weaned from the habit by a succession of hypnotic exhibitions and many troublesome diseases oured. The oost of auoh an institution to New Zealand would be recouped a thousandfold by the aervioe it would oonfer upon Bociety. Ido not, of course, confine it to hypnotism, every other therepeutioal agent could be entertained. # # # * Is the service really "going to the devil"? Upon my word the question is very strongly suggested by the Beries of mishaps that has befallen British warships during the last twelve months, among them, the Alexandia, the Howe, the Viotoria, and the very near shave of the Apollo the other day. I oan believe that the great cumbrous things are difficult to handle, their immense momentum ia hard to control. But then have .we not been given to underatand that a race of naval experts had grown up developed to regard such sea monsters as mere playthings. Naval officers, new-a days, are chock fall of Bcienoe and technique with alwayß the old Kngliah sea-dog instinct and intuition as a foundation. But it does seem to me there is a weakening in certain directions. Can't understand a naval officer forgetting things and yet here is Rear-Admiral Markham forgetting all about a standing, and most Imp >rtant, order given to him by the unhappy Admiral Tryon to use discretion in the midst of complicated n*vil manoeuvres. He was absolutely releaped lorn the old sea law of "obey orders and break owners." Had this been in his mind the poor Victoria might still have been above water, and the Camperdown would not have broken her nose by the impact, # # • # And then, again, what is this wo hear about the register in the engine-room of the C imperdown, that conveys to the engineers the orders from deok, being out of order and Would not work. Shades of Nelson and Oollingwood, Benbow and everyone of our old naval heroes, not forgetting the redoubtable Jack Hawkins ! When a very young , sea dog I remember a very old one spinning yarns about our glorious Nelson. He bad sailed on board '• Andiew" under him, and, if I mistake not, in that memorable cruise when Nelson with his flaet chased the Prenob squadron right across the Atlantic and through the fascinating Antilles, «• Nelson," said the old salt, " were a tartar, my boy, knew him hang, fi g and g > into ftotlon Skh the same time." If Nelson had been in charge of the Cimperdown and, other things being equal of course, he would have hung one half of that engineer's staff as a warning to the rest to keep cheir instruments in proper order. Suob a fearful blander as neglecting the register, a very vital point, ought to ba an abiolufcele impossibility on board of a modern ironolad. # * # # And the Apollo, dodging along on the Irish coast, probably a Ue shore, and go olobo in that the fishermen warned her off viva voce. By Van Tromp end Da Wilt, likewise Blake, the idea is too intensely funny altogether. If ifc had been blowing ft howling gale, and she under canvas and driven dead to leeward, one could understand the position. But a steamer in moderate weather, with ground under her keel ao well marked that the trained seamen, of the old aohool anyhow, could feel his way with the lead anywhere about the coasts of the United Kingdom, for a steamer, I say, to have to be told by a lot of people on ahors where Bhe waa ! I well, the skipper ought to be keol-hauled for neglecting his lead. Our foreign friends will bo looking askant at us, and wonder whether the supremacy of the sea is really deaertiDg our jolly old flag. It has been said that "war is the scourge of God. It may be bat it is also a rare stimulator to develop good manhood and latent qualities suoh as fortitude, resourcefulness, presence of mind, and resolution, all of which our race is noted for and which will oome to the front again when the tattered flag flutters o'er the heads of powder-begrimed, blood bespattered fighting men working the guns beneath it, and that time may not be far off, # # # # B,rayo lawyer, you're bound to have it one one way or another, JPanoy one of the II devil's own " getting more for reducing a bill of costs than the reduction itself. At least we are told that this happened at Chrißtchuroh last week when taxing a bill of costs £5 14a cost not a penny less than £7 2a 7d. Capital, but would it not have been better instead of making worse of it, to have Jet bad alone. If the Government does it ought to be kicked. That is, I mean, in respect to the modest little request by a lot of unemployed for the spending of £20,000 to reclaim land abont Blleßmere lake for agricultural purposes when there ia any quantity of good land elsewhere, of the virgin kind, only wait|pg for settlement. If these men must be employed by the State better set them to work buah-felling and preparing land for settlement, or at road making for the benefit of settlement already accomplished, but to grain a lake 1 what next ? # f ♦ * A pair of fools or worse ib the term to be applied to Messrs Cadman and Rees for posing before the oounty in the ordeal by battle. Aa well have qndergone the ordeal by fire i.e. walking across red hot ploughshare, the one would vindicate exactly as mttob as tho other and no more, only in the last both would reoeive a good eoorohing and 11 sarve 'em jolly well right." There waa only one reaily cleansing course of medicine jjo take, viz , the Parliamentary enquiry by commission every sitting day till finished. After the battle in Auckland they will be exaotly as they wero only one will be out in the cold while the other will not be crowned with myrtle. Aj3MODJSUS.