THE DRINK TRAFFIC.

Evening Star, Issue 7339, 11 October 1887, Page 3

THE DRINK TRAFFIC.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—When anything exists in a cammunity which is unmistakeably a nuisance, people usua'ly take steps to get rid of it; but when that nuisance endangers the lives and the safety of the community, or of individuals composing that community, the public denaand its removal even though it entail a lo?s of capital, time, convenience, end other advanta&ss. Instances of this are common. Fc.'example we, may refer to the steam tramways tf?at us-d to run through the heart of the City, tud how, after a few livri were lest, at all costs they bad to be removed; and doubtless the cable tramways of Roslyn and Morningion wou'd have t) be done away with if fatal results were in the least sense prevalent. Now we have before us one of the thousands of sad examples of an ei/il which is glaringly permitted to exist by the Government and our licensing committees to an alarming extent, though it is attended with no real advantage to the people in whose midst it pervades. Those engaged in the sale, spread, and the use of i', and who in every way encourage it—the l ; cen .~i\ grocer, the publican, and the who?esa)e & :i • chant in Bond slreet—will know what I mran, if he has a conscience, when I refer totl'e Woodbaugh tragedy, endangering the lives of two helpless innocent females, and invohing the death of the viclim of the I'quor se >•. Yet theic veiy poop'e, as they read the account to the'r wives and cb'Jdren, md wnrn them of tee evils of drink, and say with the"r mouths " What a dreadful shooking tragedy " these very v.jc/e go to tbe'r bu'.inrsj, to cr v ry on the'r •. Vl traffic, after perhaps having gone only yrr terday a? Protestants, Catholics, Christians, or inert, to theirr-spcctivechurch •, and offered up that prayer "Lead ui not irb temptation," paving God t.> de.'ive? them from the evil thc.y t'lcntelv-s sale upon others, and thereby bnnslrgso.row ! and desolation into the homes of thousands.

Is it not t'me they either ceased to offer that prayer and call themselves Christians or men, or cease to traffic in the demon drink? One cannot s'.e how they can consistently or conscientiously continue to do both, when they have this only one of the many such tragedies before them, coupled with the world's history of crimo, poverty, depression, and suffering; the increased cost of the nations of the earth for the support of gaols, officers, lunatic asylums, pooihouses, magistrates, etc., etc.; the loss of life and other evils constantly occurring and repeating themselves in the community in which they live and where they pursue their diabolical traffic.

I trust this sad, sad occurrence will cause these retail and wholesale dispensers of spirits evil sorrow, and temptation to consider the rank and cruedy inconsistent and inhuman practice they are guilty of, and that they may ask their consciences whether, by their position and by the trade they are prosecuting, they are clear from the blood of the victims of the Woodhaugh tragedy and other evils rampant in our midst, and whether the wholesale merchant and tl e retail dealer in liquors are not undoubtedly responsible to God for the share they take in bringing about this and other tragedies that are ever and anon occurring at our very doors ?—I am, etc., Vox. Dunedin, October 10. TO THE EDIT©!?. Sir,—l was grieved to tee the letter of " Proin your la tevemng's issue, and would ask him whether it is wise to throw the apple of discord among the friends of the Temperance cause. I sympathise with him most deeply in his indignation and torrow, and join with him heartily in prayer and efforts to rid our fair land of its foulest blot; and I feel with him that a nation whose legislators are blind and deaf to the evils and miseries eiuscd by the cursed traffic is in a bad case, but, as he knows, there has not bren in or near Dunedin any election wbeie the question of secularist against denominai/onaMst has been preferred to that of prohibitionist against pro-liquor man. "Prohibition" curtly alludes to the Dunedin Past election. Tint is over. Surely we can afford to give good temperance men credit for having acted honestly in that election. As honest and true temperance men as '' Prohibition" voted against the secularist, and they had good temperance reasons for doing fo. Don't Jet us quarrel over it.—J am, etc,, Good Templar. Dunedin, October 11. j