TREATMENT OF ALCOHOLICS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27734, 11 August 1955, Page 11

TREATMENT OF ALCOHOLICS

LIQUOR TRADE LEVY OPPOSED COMMENT ON VIEWS OF MR S. S. PRESTON, S.M. (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 10. Commenting on the suggestion, made yesterday by Mr S. S. Preston, S.M., that a farm institution should be established to treat alcoholics, the director of the National Council of the New Zealand Licensed Trade (Mr P. Coyle' said today that the principle suggested by Mr Preston could be directed to the treatment of many other types of sickness in the community. For example, dairy farmers could be levied to bear the cost of sending to hospital persons who contracted tubercuibsis after drinking infected milk, said Mr Coyle. The analogy could be carried into many other illnesses. He saw no reason why one trade should be singled out for the imposition of the cost of the maintenance of an institution. . Mr Preston had suggested, in the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui, that the cost of running an alcoholics’ institution should come from a levy on the liouor trade. Though commending the general ide? expressed by Mr Preston, a spokesman for Alcoholics Anonymous said alcoholism was a community problem, and should not be a charge on any particular section of the community Members of Alcoholics Anonymous he said, felt the alcoholic was still insufficiently understood as a sick person in New Zealand. There was a definite lack of treatment for alcoholics but. more than that, there was a lack of understanding of the problem of alcoholism. Salvation Army’s Work •‘Mr Preston is obviously unaware of the facts of the position,” said Colonel A. B. Cook, chief secretary for the Salvation Army in New Zealand. in a statement today. Colonel Cook said that evidently Mr Preston was not aware that some of the leaders of Alcoholics Anonymous had “found their feet” in the Salvation Army’s inebriates’ sanatorium at Roto Roa Island, Auckland. He had visited Roto Roa Island only last week, said Colonel Cook, and it met the need outlined by Mr Preston. 'He found every man happily employed with dairying, sheep husbandry, horses and pigs to care for. gardening, painting, electrical work, carpentry, and ether tasks. There was a choice of work for the men. Colonel Cook said the Salvation Army invited Mr Preston or any other Magistrate or interested persons to visit Roto Roa. The army did not confine its work among alcoholics to Roto Roa. although it claimed a high measure of success there. The army was spending £30,000 on an Auckland institution, part of which would be reserved for men leaving Roto Roa. They would be given aftercare and encouragement as they endeavoured to rehabilitate themselves in society, he said.