THE

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5724, 1 February 1876, Page 2

THE

luceo, no:; uro if 1 liave ooen u.\tii)gu)<heJ l y L t thoro rise A thousand bciiuiis fium the sjurk 1 buio.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 187G.

Anyone -who seriously leads and carefully ponders an article in the Quarterly for October entitled " Drink : the vice and the disease," will rise from the perusal feeling no little sympathy with the efforts of Good Templars — in spite of what we may term their somewhat extravagant expectations in certain directions — in their desire to reduce the evil which at present is shown to be increasing among what are termed the lower classes in the old country. The article is replete with the most convincing evidence of present and hereditary evils, which spring from this vice. Quotations are made from the evidence of Judges, Police Magistrates, Governors and Chaplains of gaols, Inspectors of military prisons, and others, given before a Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into habitual drunkenness, from a Committee of the Lower House of Convocation on Intemperance, and from various other sources. These teem with facts of a fearful import bearing on the social condition of a large class in Great Britain, and displaying, beyond question, how terribly drunken parents add to the crime of the country, and perpetuate the "generation of the wicked." " Lads of nine and ten," says one witness, " begin to frequent public-houses with their parents. " "I have seen," whites a clergyman, "in a public-house on Sunday a room lined with boys of from twelve to sixteen, drinking.'' The late Chief Justice Bovill, a man of the most upright character, wrote : — " Amongst n largo class of our population intemperance in enily life is the direct and immediate cause of eveiy kind of immorality, profligacy, and vice, and soon leads to the commission of ciime— including murder, manslaughter, lobbery, and violent assaults. In many cases these crimes are committed by pei*sons under the diiect influence of drink." The same authority shows that not only is drink on the part of the criminal an incentive to crime, but it also leads intoxicated persons, whose only offence is drunkenness, to become a prey to thobc who take advantage of their helpless position, which, rendering them unable to identify the offender, permits the latter to escape with impunity. Mr. Selfe, the Police Magistrate of Westminster, says that if the police sheets submitted to a London magistrate every morning " contain say twenty charges, the chances are that fifteen out of the twenty involve drunkenness in the prisoner." A Liverpool Police Magistrate says "Drunkenness is the cftiuoo of nino-ionilio of the crime of this countiy. " A prison chaplain of eighteen years experience is "convinced that at least 75 per cent, of those who are committed, whether for great or small offences, owe it in some shape to intemperance." Here is a telling quotation : — " I give an account of 1,000 prisoners to whom I have spoken personally. Of 29G females, 165 confess they aie drunkaids, but many more may be, for they have strange ideas as to what constitutes drunkenness Of 704 males, 408 confess they are drunkard*, and the same remark applies to men that I have made on the women. 54 of the women have drunken husbands. Many boys in prison, aged 13 and 14, are drunkards, and girls of 15 and 1G are drunkards. 44 of the younger criminals have drunken fathers, and 16 drunken motheis." Here is the operation of the law which produces and maintains the generation of the wicked. " Drink," says i Chief Constable, "brings the victims and their families to poverty and waul, and then crime follows. " The drunkards are doubtless victims, but how much more are their wives and families stand neglected, badly trained, and having a frightful example set before thum, more really the victims, and how much more numerous do they become I Military prisons, we arc told, "would be nearly empty could intoxication be kept in check." Another Chief Constable says, " Intemperance is in proportion to the indiscriminate sale of drink." This indiscriminate sale, this continual multiplication of public-houses in every community increases the already too prevalent evil. No regard is had to what may be the actual requirements of a population. We use the word "requirements" in a business light, and as admitting the necessity of having, and the impossibility of abolishing public-houses. But the practice is, and lias been, in nearly all English-speaking communities at home and abroad to increase the publichouses, to foster the demand for drink, by swelling the number of places for its sale far beyond what even the trade itself deems necessary, and the multiplication of "beer shops" in England has been a fruitful source of drunkenness, and of the crime to which it leads. Chief Justice Bovill condemned the present system of beer-shops as " one principal cause of the mischief," and Mr. Selfk says, " I cannot imagine beer-shops can be necessary when there are already too many publichouses. "I am boivnd to say," he adds, " that beer-houses appear to be so many modes of lending assistance by the State to the propagation of evil.'* We could give further extracts, all of the same kind, by the score or by the hundred. In the army, for example, thero were, in 1803, 882 committals to military prisons for drunkenness ; in 1864 the committals for the same offence were 1,137 ; in 1865 they were 1,801 ; and in 1866, 1,926 ; and they have gone on increasing. These were not cases of simple drunkenness for which a fine of five shillings would suffice, but of habitual drunkenness according to the military code. An English Superintendent of Polica says the remedy then is " to shut up the beer-shops altogether and the publichouses on Sundays, for the spread of intemperance increases with the number of places for supplying drink." The poor starved wife of the drunkard spoke as truly, as feelingly, says the reviewer, when she said "Men can drink water, but vro cannot eat stones. " Gluttony may injure a man, but it does not make him a demon. It may damage his health, but it does not ruin his family, or "murder his wife, or transmit idiocy, epilepsy, intanity, or crime to his children." Free trade in drink was claimed as a right equal to freo trade in bread or any other consumable commodity. Liverpool tried freo trade in drink, and for some years the authorities of that town set no limit to the number of licenses issued. What was the result in Liverpool ? Let these pregnant sentences tell the story : — "The temptations offered for drinking led to an immediate large increase in drunkenness,

ji'imc, p.tupcihin, ilibea&e, ami death. DeD.iuchoiy l.vn liot, outiage ami violence nnilliplieil, the gaols became filled with drunkards and ci itninals, and the death rate ran up to ~)8 in the 1,000." This death rate is more than double tho average death rate of the eight principal tovrns in England. Tho effect was salutary, for the people of Liverpool became alarmed, requisitions for the stoppage of unlimited licensing were signed by tens of thousands, " 123 medical men protested against the continuance, and free trade in drink was abrogated." The same story could be told of Hull, another large seaport town, wheio, in consequence of a similar increase of licenses, which continued longer imassailed, "the convictions for crime were doubled in ten years." Onco more we are told that "in the centre of Glasgow there are six pnblichouses to every thirty yards." Is it wonderful that with such temptations, which rccal the statement of the -poor wife who went to meet her drunken husband avi.1i his week's wages in his pocket— "I could bring him past seven publ'c-house on the way home, but I could not bring him past fifteen,'" — is it wonderful that after being told of such facilities, the statistical fact should present itself that Glasgow is " one of the most drunken places in the world V If anyone wonders at the extreme lengths which- the Good Templars go in favouring the, as we believe, hopeless, prohibitory and penal laws against the trade in liquors, which they advocate, let him read the article in tho Quarterly, from which the most of our quotations are made, and the most tem-perate-minded man while perhaps doubting the wisdom of their extreme enthusiasm will find a difficulty in replying to the question — Is there not a cause 1 ? We shall have something more to say on this subject, bearing on the increase in the number of public-houses, which cause an undue competition,having the effect firstly of increasing drunkenness by increasing temptation, and secondly not seldom of lowering the character of some of the houses. We are no prohibitionists^ because we know, or think we know, something of human natu/e and the passions of mankind ; but we advocate limitation, and not that expansion, of the pernicious and far reaching effects of which we have given only a few of the to6 prominent and multitudinous examples.

Some time ago, it was v noticed that the machinery of the Thames Pumping Association -n as impeded in its working by the incrustation of a hard substance principally composed of carbonate of lime.. Largo blocks of this material were taken from the pipes and rods of the drainage pump, and samples of it are now on view in the office of Mr. Charles Tothill, Shortlaud-street. They consist of a hard coherent mass of a yellowish- white coloured matber, iu large sheets, varying from a quarter of an inch in, thickuess to moie than three iuches, and' formed of several layers of the same material. They ave generally quite amorphous, but the inner aide appears semicrystalline, with very small crystals of pyrites distributed. A specimen of the incrustation was sent to Sir. Skey, Government Analyst at Wellington, and his leport is as follows : — "Carbonate of lime, S3 '94 ; carbonate of magnesia, '84 ; iron oxide, with alumina, G 69 ; siliceous matter, insoluble in cold acid, 2-18 ; soluble silica, "44 ; water, 2*17; alkali, sulphur, and loss, 174; total, 100." The incrustation is, therefore, shown to be mainly carbonate of lime, and it is, no doubt, formed by depositions from its solution in water highly charged -with carbonic acid, the acid of which escaping as easy communication is met with from the surtace to the lower strata, the lime can no longer remain in solution. With reference to the allusion made in our yesterday's regatta report to Captaui Casey's absence trom the regatta on Saturday, where his presence as umpire was naturally looked for, Captain Casey informs us that he was not aware that he had bc-jn elected umpire, otherwise he certainly should have been present, even if it had been necessary to neglect his own business. Our reporter was not aware of Captain Casey's not being acquainted with the fact that he had been named as umpire. State of Her Majesty's Gaol, at Auckland, for the week ending January 29 :— On remand, 1 male ; awaiting trial, 3 males, 0 females ; penal servitude, 35 males ; hard labour, 69 males, 31 females ; iinprisonmeut, 2 females ; default of bail, 4 males, 1 female ; received during the week, 16 males, 4 females; discharged, 12 males, 3 females; total in gaol, 1 1 2 males, 34 females. iteturn. of sick treated ab the Provincial Hospital for the "we'ek ending Saturday, January 29 : Remained last return, S2; admitted since, 5; discharged, 9; died, 1; remaining, 77 ; males 65, females 12. Ai*rangement of cases : Zymotic, 17 ; constitutional, 8; local, 34; developmental, 4; violent, 14. — One death occurred during the week, viz.: T.S., male, aged 34 years, on January 24th, of brain disease. — Thanks are returned to Mrs. Brissenden, Ep3om, and to Mrs. Brown, Wahapu, Bay of Islands, for parcels of old linen. In consequence of unavoidable circumstances Dr. Ellis will not be able to deliver his promised lecture to-night upon " The autobiography of the earth, and its history as written by Moses." The treat has been postponed to the 8th instant. - Captain Daldy, asjehairman of the Harbour Board, invites tenders for the construction of a graving dock at Auckland. Tenders Will be received until the 18 th April at noon. Plans, &c, can be seen at the office of Mr. W. Erriugton, Canada Buildings. A meeting of the subscribers to the Auckland lJispensary was held in the Mechanics' Institute yesterday afternoon. The chair was occupied by Mr. W. Swanson, M.H.E. The medical officer's report for the last three months was read which showed that during that time he had attended one case of scarlatina. The report did not state whether the patient resided in the city or suburbs, but it is well for parents to take note of the fact. It is also a matter which should be considered by the various school committees in the city and suburbs. The institution was as usual sadly in want of funds and a resolution was carried to adjonru the meeting for a month to enable the collectors to hand in the amounts they had on hand. A report of the business done, together with a copy of the medical officer's report appears in another column. Through an error in the catalogue of the rains sold afc Mr. Alfred Bucklaud's sheep fair on Wednesday last Mr. James Parr was reported in onr issue of Thursday to have j sold a ram for Ss. That gentleman was nob present at tho sale, neither did he buy or I sell any i ams at it. j | We are pleased to learn that a very satis- | factory explanation is afforded to the suspicious circumstances alluded to in yesterday's Cfloss, to tho effect that an attempt at incendiarism had been made at Mr. I George Staines's marine store, Upper Queen- 1 street. It seems that a yonnc boy in the \ employ of Mr. Cole, basketmaker, Queenstreet, had been told to convey a number of small bundles of basket shavings to Mr. Cole's private residence in Upper Queenstreet, bnt on passing Mr. Staines's the thought Btruck him that he was too heavily weighted, and would secrete a few bundles. This waa at once done, and the remainder he carried to his destination. Shortly after Mr. Staines discovered the shavings, he was informed how the matter had occurred, but he Btill holds to the fire-raising theory. A meeting will take place at Henderson's Mill on Saturday, February 5th, for the purpose ®f forming a committee to carry out and make arrangements for the Henderson's Mill races to be held on St. Patrick's day (March 17th).

The steamer ' O^ago' is expected to leav TTokitika at noon on the 2nd instan .. Telegrams for the Australian colonies or Europe via Java cable will be received at the Auckland telegraph office for transmission to Hokitika until 10 o'clock on the morning of that day. Those desirous of obtaining ad ruvricm degrees in the New Zealand University have to send in an application to th it effect addressed to the Registrar, Ohristchurch, on or before the 22ud proximo, accompanied by evidence in support of the application. At or about four o'clock p.m. yesteiday, whilst Mr. Sykes and Dr. Turner were engaged with*" some hydropathic patients in the baths, some benevolently-disposed self-made steward of other people's property entered Mr. Sykes's office, which is upstairs on the ground floor, and generously took possession of the cash which reposed in a drawer in the office. To get at it the thief must have put his arm through the small pigeon-hole window, withdrew the cash drawer from its place near the window, emptied it of its contents, and then, in his hurry, left it on the shelf of the window, and decamped. Fortunately the amoant was small, Air. Sykes having deposited his purse, containing some £8, in the safe only a few minutes before. ' This might act as a caution to shopkeepers in these times of big shows, which aie no doubt a source of aunoyauce to many who may desire to witness them, while they are not able to pay from their earnings the " entrance fee which is charged. On Sunday afternoon Mr. John Hardiman, of Hokianga, met with a \-ery severe accident, which may yet result fatally. On Friday he purchased some new horses in town, and on Sunday afternoon he rode out to Mount Albert on ono of them, accompanied by his brother George. After a short stay at the residence of Mr. Nelson, Mount Albert, he proceeded towards Onehunga, accompanied by his brother and Mr. Nelson. When ncaring Onehuuga the horse upon which Mr. John Hardnnan rode shied at one of the cows usnally straying on the road there, and threw hi3 rider, who fell heavily on the left side of his head, causing dangerous concussion. He was removed to the residence of Mr. Nelson, and is 3iow attended by Dr. Young, of Newton. His condition at present is very precarious, and his medical attendant does not venture to express an opinion as to his chances of ultimate recovery. In the lock-up at a late hour last night there was only one drunkard's name on the charge-sheet. On Saturday last the annual picnic of the Onehunga Presbyterian- School took place at the Three Kings. Sports of various kinds were indulged in by those present, and a very pleasant day was spent. At about half-past eleven last night Mr. Levi Coupland of Loi ne street heard a noise in one of his rooms as if the window was being raised. He went into the room from which he fancied the noise proceeded and there discovered a man who had entered his house b'y way of the window. Mr. Oouplaud lost no time in getting the services of a constable, and in spite of the protestations of the man that he had visited Mr. Coupland's simply to enjoy a night's rest — for which purpose he had removed his boots — the ruthless representative of law and order '"ran him in," and the intruder will have an opportunity of explaining h's conduct this morning to the presiding magistrate at the Police Court. The (Jhoral Society are to rehearse Mozart's requiem mass this evening. As the Society have had a long holiday, it is to be hoped that a large number will attend to study this beautiful composition — one which is so seldom heaul, There is now little doubt that the human body, which was picked up near Waiheke, a few days ago, and upon which an inquest was held by Mr. Chamberlain at Waiheke, was that of Mr. George Cockrof t, butcher, residing at Tapu, who left Grahamstown on the 15th January to return home in a boat, and has not since been heard of. The Mount Albert Wesleyan Sundayschool held their annual festival on Saturday last, in the grounds of Mr. J. T. Garlick. The plan adopted by the teachers of this school is different to any of the others we have been present at. Instead of making a whole day festival the children assemble about 1 o'clock, and the funds that a dinner woidd cost (about one-half of the money collected for all expenses), is spent in the purchase of handsomely bound and instructive books, and each scholar is presented w i h ono. A substantial tea is provided, consisting of an ample supply of ham sandwiches, cake, &c. This new system, we think, is a decided improvement, especially for suburban and country schools, as a dinner is no great treat to children who arc always well fed, and the book thus carried home affords amusement for many an hour after the festival day is past. The Mount Albert children seemed highly to approve of the arrangement, and if we may judge from the hearty cheering, which might have been heard two miles off, repeated again aud again, there is no doubt they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and did not return to their homes so wearied as if they had been at play from 9 o'clock in the morning. We notice the district is rapidly improving, and what a few years ago was an open and desolate-looking country, nothing but boulders and fern to be seen, now ia prettily dotted with family resi- j dences and trees in great variety. 'l?rom our Waikato contemporary we learn that some little excitement has been caused on the frontier from the circumstance that Mr. 3. Morgan's eldest daughter aud son had been lett by their mother at the native settlement of Motakotako, Aotea, when returning from Kawhia, on her way to Alexandra. Mr. Morgan, the father, received a message from the Motakotako natives, forbidding him on his peril to go up to that settlement for his children. Morgan, however, proceeded to Raglan for the purpose of laying an information in the Resident Magistrate's Court with a view to their recovery. — Scouts have been despatched from Hamilton, in the direction of Maungakaura and the Piako, to iutercept the murderer Wynward, should he have gone in that direction. The Waikato authorities have not left a stone unturned to capture the bloodthirsty wretch. — Steps have been taken to erect a new Roman Catholic Church in the Taupiri district. - The Armed Constabulary in the Waikato district are to be employed in roadmaking. Only as many men as are necessary foi the purpose of taking care of the several stations will be retained, and some fifteen at head-quarters in Hamilton, so that out of a full force of ninety men it is expected that full sixty men, with their officers, will be available for employment on public works. One party will be employed on the swainp road, near the confiscation boundary, beyond Orakau, and another between Pukeknra and Rotorangi ; but the main body will be employed on the road between NgarnawaLia and Alexandra, one party proceeding at once to Hether's Creek ! on the Whata.wh.nta road to where the road | is in a worse state of repair than elsewhere. — | In the district around Alexandra the natives | are very dark, in consequence of the very ; unfavqurable weather we are experiencing, and the great labour they have to undergo in saving their crops. At Kopua, there is a large number of them at work ; aud by assisting each other they are getting a good deal of their grain in. They have purchased a reaping machine, which is kept going at every favourable opportunity. — Tawhiao has returned from the Kuiti to Hikurangi. The meeting was siuiilai' to the oue held at Hikvi I'ciugi, to introduce Tawhiao's new doctrine there. The Sabbath every tenth day is now strictly kept at every native settlement. At Kopua, where there is now a large number of them residing, services are held several times during the day, at which all attend. — Dr. Harsant lately called a meeting of the settlers at Kaglan, which was fairly attended, to give expression to their opinion as to the desirability of procuring the regular visit of the s.s. ' Go-ahead ' to this port, on her trips between Hussell and Taranaki. The captain of the vessel had stated that he would call in once a fortnight, if sufficient inducement was guaranteed, or if he could secure freight or passengers to the extent of £10 for the trip. A feeling of satisfaction was expressed

by those present at the terms offered, anil a genei al resolution come to that, in the event of the proposal being carried out, every encouragement should be given to the steamer. —The question of which is the best road from Raglan to the Waipa has been pretty conclusively settled since the return of the parly sent out to prospect the Ko Orangi lino. They came through on the 24th, and stat"* that from Hazlit's to Whatawhata the distance is only eight miles, or little more than half the distance of the present line. The Ko Oraugi line, moreover, they report to be free from all engineering difficulties, theie being not more than three small bridges to erect, and a cutting through sandstone rock, neither very extensive nor costly. This will bring Raglan not only within easy distance of Waikato, but by as good a road, when formed, as any in the district ; and one, too, that will be easily kept in repair. For, beyond the three bridges named, there are not as many culverts required in the whole distance.