TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 16

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[The matter for this column is supplied by a representative of the local tomperanco bodies, who alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in it.] THE TRANSVAAL LIQUOR BILL. Recent South African files contain details of the "back-down" of tu© Transvaal Government on their- Liquor Bill. On Friday, the 26th July, in tho Legislative Assembly, tho Attorney-General, referring to the Bill, the second reading of which was the first order of the day for tho following Monday, said that the central idea of the Bill waa the Government control of liquor to be supplied to natives. The idoa. which the Government had 4 was to ( establish a. Government depot and get the control of the liquor into the hands of the Government. The Government was actuated by two reason 3 in introducing that Bill. The first was that the Government wanted as far a& pos&ible to put a. stop to the illicit liquoi [ traffic which was so pervalent on tht> Rand, and in the second place the Government considered that it would improve tho condition of the natives on the mines. Since the first vending of the Bill tho Government ha<4 come- to the conclusion that there was evidently a very gravo j misunderstanding with Kgard to the scope of 'the Bill, and with regard ] to the motives which actuated ; tho Government in bringing it forward- The Government did not intend to rush a matter like that through the House — (Hear, hear) — without giving the public 01 the Transvaal time to consider it, and-rsince it was a matter which' might affect the interests of the neighbouring South African colonies— without also consulting the other South African colonies. He therefore moved as an unopposed motion that the order for the second reading of tbe Bill be discharged, and that the Bill be withdrawn. The motion was agreed to amidst cheers. Sir George" Farrar said: On behalf of "his side of the House he wished to say that he accepted the statement of the Attornejv-General with great satisfaction. "NOT UNDERSTOOD."' While tho Government withdrew tha Bill with as good a grace as possible, the alleged misunderstanding was only 0 convenient device to "save its face " Tho meetings of protest .throughout the'eountry indicated that tho measure and it? real intent were known only too well. A correspondent of the Johannesburg Star writes : — The facts revealed by the newspapers and the •experience of those who have been in- tha country for any number of years, has led to a feeling approaching dismay. A gentleman who has had forty years' experience of tho natives, who has chatted with tho chiefs of many tribes, told me that the proposal was absolute madness. The chiefs had learned what evil effects strong drink have on their people, and he was convinced that they would be very reluctant to allow them to go to tho mines if the sale of liquor will become l&galised. ''It is all nonsense," he said, "for the Government to say they will control the traffic, and see that pure beer is served. Before the war we had to contend more with the stuff sold under labals of ginger-beer, Kops beer, and lime-juice cordial, which was concocted and contained eighty per cent, of alcohol, than with the illicit liquor its;!!." The Government had failed) even now to suppress the illicit traffic, and with the sale of beer legalised, the door would bo open to the illicit trade on a huge scale. This view is confirmed by Government officials, who, of course, cannot giye publicity to their views. ALCOHOL AND HEART-WORK. , g The late Dt. Sir B. W. Richardson was once able to preach an effective temperance sermon by nisans of a simple experiment. An acquaintance was singing Ili6 praises of wive and> saying he could not get through the day without it, when Dr. Richardson said to him: — "Will you bo good enough to feel my pulse as I stand her;?" He did so. I said, "Count it cmrefully; what does it say?" "Your pulse cays 74." I then sat down on, a chair and askedi him to count it again, ile did so, and said, "Your pulse has gone down to 70." I then lay down on the lounge, and said : — Will you count it again?" He replied, "Why, ( it is only 64 ; what an extraordinary thing !" I then said, "When you He down at night that is the way nature gives your heaTt rest. You knbw nothing about it, but that beating organ is resting ..to that extent; and if you reckon it up it is a 1 great deal of rest, because in lying down tho heart is doing ten strok-ss less ai minute. Multiply that by sixty and it is six hundred ; multiply it by eight I hours, and within a fraction it is five thousand strokes different ; and as the heart is throwing sixty ounces of blood at every stroke, it makes a difference of thirty thousand ounces of lifting duTing the night. "When I lie down 'at night without any alcohol, that is the rest my heart gets. But when you take your Vine or grog you do not allow that rest, for the influence of alcohol is to increase the numbor of strokes, and instead of getting this rest you put on something ( like fifteen thousand extra strokes, and the result is you ■ns* up tired and very unfit for the next day's work." ALCOHOL AND CRIME.' Havelock Ellis, in the Criminal^ published in 1895, writing of alcoholism in parents as tho cause of much crime in their children, cays : — "Carefully drawn statistics of the four thousand criminals who ha.vo passed through Elmira (Roforniatory), New York, show drunkenness clearly existing in parents in 38-7 per cent., and probably in 11.1 more. Out of 71 criminols whose ancestry Rossi was able to trace, mi 20 the father uvus a dTunkard, in 11 tho mother. Jlaro found that on an average 41 per cent, of the criminals he examined hadt a drunken parent, as against 16 per cent, for normal persons." The real danger of alcohol lies m the action it lias in loosing morbid impulses, rather than its direct prompting to crime. This is just what I temperance authorities have asserted, from the first inception of the movement. No ono was ever absurd enough to maintain that alcohol was a demoniac intelligence nossessing volition and the power of initiative. What was asserted was this — that its minchicf was effected in two ways, complementary to each otherfirst, by its specific effect in the circulation,, exciting to abnormal activity the fleshly or animal propensities which have thoir natural and necessary uses in the human economy; and, secondly, to benumbing and paralysing tiie higher faculties ~ winch should drreet and' control those tendencies. At tho same time, as it open 6 the throttle-valve it throws tbe brake- out of ge.ir Modern science hes confirmed these conclusions.

There is in England an institution called tho British Goat Society, which has dono a great deal of good in im- I proving the common goat. Goats will do ■wall on scrub in granite country, and produce rich, pure milk of tho most nourishing and digestiblo quality, free from tuberculosis, fever, und other germs. In England a good goat gives from one to two quarts for several months. The hides arc valuable, and the flesh of the kid* up to B>ix mouths old is 1 hifthly. estocniod.