TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10482, 21 October 1899, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

I Ibis oofaunn is published by arrangement witn ihe Temperance Uocietiea of Canterbury, who alone are responsible for . ihe opinions expressed in it. It is re- • quested that all communications intended fur this c-luruii be addressed J "Temperance, "Press" Office. j , The conductor of this column desires to * acknowledged from: Jars _.., £1; Mrs V., Is 6d; Hornby _i_-_c_ase meeting, ds 3d; W.C.T.ti, t i,Ci»|t_hurch, £1; Star oi Hornby Lodge, 10a. DR_NK_NG__*%EI*LINGTON. Its MORAL AND FINANCIAL AS-'ECI'S. Tnere are soiue p__£>ie who persistently reiu-e to boaeve u_. wtois that we are constantly avowing ao.ut tue Liquor 1 rathe, ana who will not recognise that it forma one 'ol ut- greatest oi our sveiai dangers. We j ore cou»vau_ly trying to convince people ot mc aw .in mea_.e wuicU the tr____ lurma to tue moral wei-are vi the young men and ! women <.{ the ounrmunity. W neii we -peak i dcliuitely ot tue eviis connected witti p__i_c [ no _*t#, -.mc peop.e turn up -heir noses, aud ! say ___«, we ej__y 6 exwie. Others say : "We knaw t..0 tra-ttc is as __d aa it can be, but wi_its tbe use of stirring up dirty water:*" lAs neither of these classes is likely to be very much affected by tne existence of evil limes, it immediately c__aer__ themse-vts, ,we have taken some steps to show tbe state of tilings fcoat ready exist-. Perhaps the un_-ii.ving, who protest that we exaggerate, will become so roused to the existence of a deadly evl, and undei_tand what a subtle and fiendish temptation is before their young men in the shape of the ii__f-_undj*ed public houses' oi t_e city that they will nave i> interest* enough to see for themselves what «re have seen; while those who "know the 'truth just as well as we do," yet who steadily refuse to take any interest in the removal of temptations, may be led to see the responsibility that rests upon them, and work for no-license. In order to see for ourselves what kind of a factor the liquor traffic is in regard to the mora-, of the community, and of the extent to which it affects our young men, we visited several of the Wellington hotels on the evening of Saturday, the 2nd inst. T_o_e engaged in the trade, and those favourable to it, say that pubbc houses are not calculated to lead young men astray, so wo went to see who was right. That was only fair and just, both to the trade and to ours-1ve5.,..-,. , We viaied: the majority of the hotels in the city. We do not pretend to have seen aH over the houses. We simply walked into the puoiic parts of them,.the bars, the bar parlours, the billiard rooms. In numbers of cases we iheaxd voices in other rooms indicating drinking, but did not enter. DOES YOUNG NEW ZEALAND DRINK? YOU-.G WELLINGTON DOES, AT ANY RATE. We fpund much th_t we expected to find. We found a great deal of which vre had not the -ttgnt-st idea. There was every inducement to drink. In some cases the bar counter was pa-t-tsoned off so as to provide sscrecy. Then "there were little side rooms, all tending to the same thing. But the thing that grieved us most was that 90 per cent of thcee who were drinking between ten and eleven o'clock, the time when we made our visit, were young _____ All were affected to an extent. Numbers were in a stupid, maudlin condi-tron, and it made our heartburn with indignation at tbe trade which allowed bar girls to listen to the language used by young fellows who had deadened their sensibilities with liquor. The majority too, of the young men, were of what would be called the better class, were weft droned, ! etc, and looked like you__s in the positions of bank and lawyers' clerks, etc., etc. The percentage of the working dam waa very small. Doubtless __c parent- and the employer- of those who were drinking would be a-tonf'-hed if they knew -their ___me_. Now we invite our readers to work _his , out. The a»__9g»..-upb-r of those who were dr_i_fc__g i_» the hotels, at a very tow estimate, would... be twenty-five for each house, for, a« we noted earher, we took no count of those who were drinking in private rooms.* It wot© _ut at over a t-w__and young men _n fihe J__tels at one time. When em attempt Is made to __t__iply tbe i______r «o aa to get an odea of t_e number of young men drinking on one Saturday evening, it ia tomply appaHling. Young Wellington does d___k, and drunk freely; a_d cf the father- and mo-bers and employers of Wellington want to save their sons and employees irom ruin, they will have to vote No Lto-uae, and put the liquor I away from them altogether. { We wish from tbe bottom of our heart* that every mother _n Wel__gton could have accompanied .__ ou it___t _v-o_ag to see what bells of temptation are before their boys in the sharpe of the lk-need booses. Men and women of Wo__JJgto_. _t__ke out tha top line only on youi* vot__g paper at itbe LooalOnl »mJOSSso&H&*9* •» «** to tbe drinking young men, and save your hoy*. SOME INTERESTING MGURES FOR MOTHERS AND FATHERS AND BUSINESS MEN TO CONSIDER. At least £120,000 is spent annually in Wellington in liquor. On mi average this

I means, counting Sundays in, that £330 is spent every day. Supposing that the average spent by each drink.r is one shilling, this means tbat 6600 people drink pretty ! freely every day. What a tremendous proportion in a city of <*0.000 all told! "Or, if it should be said that we exaggerate |_.c drioking powers of the individual by granting him a shilling a day, tlie proportion of those who drink is vastly greater. Take a week at the first computation, a a day. It mains that what'is equivalent to 46,000 people drinking in the week takas place. ■ This gives an i__a, even supposing that much of this is done by the same persons, of tbe enormous amount of drinking that goes on in Wellington; and, as we I The motker-i, are pretty heavy, that your bays are among tbe drinkers. Stbp s __vt no license, and save them in time. Now look at the same thing from a business point of view. Reckoning the average wage at 8s a day, it means that one day's wage'oat of every week goes for liquor from 962 men, making a total 'for tbe week of 5772 men who work for one whole day for less than nothing, seeing that liquor produces only disastrous effects. Is it any wonder that the liquor trade nourishes? One whole di-y's wage given to the publicans every week by 5772 men. We ask business men to consider this matter seriously. Can those who provide for us the necessaries and comforts of fife, afford in a place like Wellington to let an average ol £384, which they ought to receive, go into the pockets of the publicans? £2304 to be spent in the shops of Wellington, every Saturday night would mean an increase of trade that would open the eyes of most business people; and If they are alive to their own interests, and really desire to get cm, they will vote no license at the poll, and keep for themselves the £120,000 yearly which now goes to build up the fortunes of the publicans and brewers. Therefore treat yonr voting paper in the wav indicated in another part of this issue. —"The Voice," Wellington, 26-9-99. Hlb GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY ON DRINK TEMPTATIONS. The Archbishop of Canterbury has delivered several notable speeches of late, and it is observable that whilst cordially inculcating the virtues of total abstinence, his Grace' never fails to deprecate tbe extraordinary number of public temptations to drinking. At Gloucester last Friday he said it would very greatly help their fellow men if they could manage to diminish these temptations to drinking. Those temptations were very great indeed, he said, and if a man had once given way everybody knew that the temptation grew and grew with wonderful rapidity and power. Gertainly, if they wanted to help their fellow men they must keep those temptations away from them. There were hundreds cf temptations to drink all through society. They wanted to get rid of all treating with intoxicating liquors, and they wanted these temptations to drink very greatly diminished. The House of Commons could do it if its members chose. Tne House of Lord- did not do it because they said it must come from the people themselves, and be the work of the representatives of the people. There was no doubt at all that if the House of Commons cbose to pass measures of that kind the House of Lords would not resist them. They wished to diminish the temptations in another way—to stop a great deal of Sunday drinking. Sunday was the day wlien, generally speaking, a man had most time at his command, and it was very hard that there should be thrown in his face this terrible temptation to degrade himself. His Grace thought the liquor trade should be put under just as much restraint as any 'other trade. They did not allow other trades to be pursued on Sundays, and to allow the publican to open his house was not at all reasonable. Of course, there were strong reasons over and above the temperance argument on this question: for it was sometnmg shocking that of all days the Lord's Day should be the day when it was most easy to indulge, and when there was a sort of invitation to desecrate that day. Those were things they wanted tbe I__-islatra-e to remedy, a_id in this country the Legislature nwould do what they demanded if they only pet-xeted in itnar' demajid.—'TTl-sr A_____oe News," February 10th, 1899. 51