TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 21934, 22 January 1935, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

iPublished by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.) Dl! INKING BY YOUNG WOMEN. Mrs Kasper, president of the Auckland branch of the W.C.T.U,, deserves thanks for calling attention to the matter of young women drinking. A statement in the Press of September 6 reported-her as saying: “ 1 had been told by clergymen and other people recently that drinking among women was on the decrease. 1 was pleased to hear this, but at the same time 1 wished to see for myself. Therefore on two recent Saturday afternoons 1 visited twenty hotels in the more thickly populated part of Auckland city. 1 was shocked to find small bars set aside for women completely filled. Most of the women were young, and they were nearly all in various stages of intoxication, some having reached a deplorable condition.”

In one bar alone, Mrs Kasper said, she found thirty women drinking. Maii3- of them were quite intoxicated, and many were smoking. Mrs Kasper said one young woman who was completely intoxicated told her she was married and had four youugS,children. She laughingly added that she had not seen thorn since 8 o’clock that morning, and tho afternoon was then far advanced.

Although the drink bill in New Zealand had been reduced from £8,000,000 to £5,500,000 a year, many realised that drinking was on the increase among young people, and the lure of the cocktail party and drinking at dances and cabarets was undoubtedly getting worse. The society women, who must have their cocktails and who serve them to young people, are a great danger to tho community, Mrs Kasper added. By coincidence, in the Wellington ' Evening Post ’ of September 5 tlieio was a report that Mrs Lance Smith, president of tho New South Wales Country Women’s Association, had appealed to members to join in a campaign against drinking and against women'.-- cocktail liars. Mrs Smith said she was not a teetotaller, hut that ‘‘ God’s gifts were for man's use, not abuse.” It is singular that one who drinks should ask others to join in a campaign against it, and we doubt very much whether a cocktail may legitimately be listed as one of “ God’s gifts.” But the evil of women drinking is real enough, and calls for action.—Exchange. “ MILK CONSCIOUS.” Sydney's New Drink.— Sydney seems to have discovered a " new ” drink. It is milk—straight from fhe cow or more or less ‘‘ adulterated ” with every sort, of llavouring it is possible to imagine. Hotelkeepers have been complaining that their trade is not what it used to bo, and there is nothing surprising about that when one considers that there are now in the city between fifty and sixty milk bars —shops that provide milk drinks exclusively—selling about 10,000 gallons of milk a week. The number of bars is being added to every week, and each bar seems to be doing a roaring trade. In addition, milk is being retailed in the city by hundreds of refreshment rooms and restaurants. Sydney, it would seem, has suddenly become “ milk conscious.”

The milk bar trade was' pioneered in Sydney about two years ago, and the pioneers did so well that there has been a remarkable expansion, accompanied with ingenuity in the invention of new milk drinks. At one up-to-date bar in the centre of the city the ingredients used in various mixtures include ten varieties of fruit, • cream, butter, eggs, chocolate, honey, caramel, malt, yeast, and (surprisingly) rum. Lest the combination of rum and milk should lead to a false impression, it should be explained that this flavouring contains only 1 per cent, of rum. One of the big bars sells on the average 200 gallons of milk a day, and those who arc inclined to scoff at milk as a “ sissy ’’ sort of drink are confounded by the fact that of the 18,000 weekly customers the majority are men.

Those milk-drinking men are neither so young that milk would seem to be their natural food, nor so old as to he suspected of invalidity. They arc of all ages and descriptions, and obviously they all like milk. Needless to say. the' Metropolitan Milk Board heartily approves of the milk bars, and it has figures to show that in the city and suburbs nearly 20,000,000 gallons of milk are consumed each year. The figure is not all-embracing, and it is safe to say that the consumption is close to 28,000,000 gallons—a huge increase over the quantity of milk sold in Sydney lavo years ago. CATHOLIC 'ACTION. The Brisbane ' Courier-Mail ’ records (hat at a confirmation of boys ami girls by bis Grace Archbishop Du big, the candidates took a pledge to abstain from intoxicating liquor till they are twenty-five years of age. The Archbishop said: “ The most beautiful social function held this season rvas the Catholic Ball recently held in the City Hall. This ball outshone every oilier ball held this year, because not one girl smoked, ami not one man took strong drink into the ball. It was regrettable that such conditions did not prevail at other such gatherings in the city.” The Sydney ‘ Morning Herald ’ reported a sea tiling attack cm liquor at social functions by the Rev. Rather Morris. Amongst other things, lie said: " Young women consider it smart to partake of strong drink at dances in public halls. We are accustomed to reading of so-called derelicts Avho sink so loav H' a t they drink methylated spirits or “ pinkie.” Young Avomen who at dances drink cocktails, whisky, and oven gin, bring themselves down to the level of those outcasts.” RISKS OF THE DRINK TRADE. Jn response to an inquiry recently addressed to the Prudential Assurance Co., Ltd., regarding the rates of premium for a Avhole-lifc assurance policy for the sum of £IOO for a young man of twenty-five, the company replied that the annual premium payable Avould be £1 10s Bd. They added that the extra premium required for lives

which arc connected with tho trade in intoxicating liquors is £2 per annum, payable for such time as they are so engaged. It will thus bo seen that tho largest insurance company in the country finds it necessary to charge a young man more than double the usual premium because of the risks involved in the liquor traffic. LIQUOR AND FLYING. Max Cosyns, whose daring flight into the stratosphere was followed with admiration and anxiety by the whole world, is a “ dry,' 1 To a correspondent of ‘ Lc Temps,’ who, an instant before the departure, ottered him a glass ol champagne, he replied: ” i am a ‘ dry.’ I never drink anything but water; 1 shall not begin to-day, when I wish to keep a clear head and to be in complete possession of all my faculties.” WHISKY FOR SLEEP. Lord Horder, eminent physician, addressing the British Medical Association on the subject of sleep, gave as one recommendation for those who want, to sleep, ” Do not be put off your whisky toddy nightcap if you are used to it.” Now! whisky is advertised as a stimulant, and regarded by millions of people in that light. If whisky will put .you to sleep at night, it will make you dull during the day; which is exactly what the scientist discovers when testing the effect of alcohol on motor drivers. It is rather curious that Lord Horder is reported in the same address to have referred to ‘‘orgies of sleep” as “ a bad habit like alcohol and drugging, and should he resisted.” So that the “ whisky toddy ” must he a bad habit after all.

RED ROAD IN U.S.A. * The American Business Men's Research Foundation has recently issued some data obtained from Police Court records showing the tragic increase in motor fatalities and accidents and drunken driving in the U.S.A. since repeal. President Roosevelt, addressing a convention of the Automobile Association in June, said: ‘‘l am deeply concerned over the staggering toll of deaths, injuries, aiid heavy property damage caused by highway accidents. We cannot longer afford to temporise with this problem.” Although alcohol is generally thought of as a stimulant, and gives the feeling of stimulation to the person drinking it, its real effect is depressing on most of the functions of the body. The driver who lias been drinking gives a poorer grade of attention to what is going on around him, including other traffic signals. His eyes, hands, and feet are slower to respond. His muscular responses are less dependable, more variable. But he has increased ■self-assurance, which prompts him to assume the right of way and be willing to take a chance.—Dr Walter R. Miles of the Institute of Human Relations, Yale University.