IMPERIAL TEMPERANCE CONFERENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 14628, 26 July 1911, Page 7

IMPERIAL TEMPERANCE CONFERENCE.

NEW ZEALAND KB ON TOTAL ABSTINENCE. [From Ocn Special CouEEsrosuK.vr.l LONDON", June 16. Now Zealand members of the 1m- '■ portal Temperance Conference, held this week at the Imperial Institute, included Dr W. A. Chappie, M.P., Lady! Stout, Rev. R. Kaine, Miss Roberts, j Mrs Ostler. Messrs W. H. George (Wei- j liugton), J. W. Drown, li. Hart, G. j Fowlds, jlin., W. Cangliey, K. Gobi), j R. Cobb, and Richard Bmyau 'New i Plymouth). On Wednesday l>r Chappie contributed a paper on "Total Abstinence:: tho extent to which it prevails, and its effect as exhibited in mental and business efficiency.' He supplemented this with a short address, afterwards replying; at the close of the debate which followed. Alcohol, lie said, was a danger to ail because of its inherent power of creating a craving for itself. Even in small doses alcohol was an evil. The National Insurance Hill of Mr j Lloyd George was like a, practitioner j of tho old school: it treated symptoms j only, instead of causes. Tuberculosis, j sickness, and unemployment were j symptoms, and the one outstanding i cause of these evils was the amount of alcohol consumed.. What was vitally j necessary was to attack the cause, not merely to treat tho symptoms. Total abstinence was spreading; \ among Anglo-Saxon peoples, said Dr Chappie in his paper on the subject. The high altruism of St. Paul, who would eat no meat lest be make his brother to offend, appealed only to the ; noble few; but many could be reached by an appeal to their interest. For alcohol did not pay. " Your job's safer when they know you don't touch it." was the wage-earner's point of view of the matter. Going back to first principles, the speaker showed that alcohol had a paralysing effect on the tissue cells of the human body—an effect in direct proportion to the quantity and frequency of the contact. The so- j called " stimulation " of alcohol was a \ misnomer, for it was really due to the partial paralysis of tho vaso-motor centres of the brain. Every action of alcohol in tho body was paralytic in its effect.

"If this is tnic," said Dr Chappie, "why do not all believe it:' Because wino is a mocker. It promises what it doos not give. It gives one and takes ten. Its secondary deception is the crave for more than it ultimately engenders." In replying on the debate, Dr Chappie said he was of opinion that in Now Zealand there had been a cessation of total abstinence propaganda, and there was a great danger of not keeping close to this vital text, that in itself alcohol was an ever-present danger, and that the virtue of total abstinence should be cultivated in the presence of that danger.