PROHIBITION.

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1911, Page 7

PROHIBITION.

A RACIAL FALLACY

WV have just received a copy of a pamphlet entitled “Prohibition, a Racial Fallacy,’ by W. H. Symes, M.D. (Edin.), B.Sc ■ (Paris), vice-president of Eugenics Education Society of New Zealand, Christchurch branch. The little brochure, which is written from the scientific standpoint, serves as a compliment to Professor Saln end’s philosophical t reatise on the same Question. The writer is one who has at no time championed the Libuor Traffic, eo that his statements are entirely free from bias. In reply to Mr Atkinsons statement that 75 per cent of the cases before the Biitish Police Court are associated with drink, Dr. Symes admits that this may be true but that it is equally true that 100 per cent are connected with mental or moral defect of some kind. In Italy, for example, where drunkenness is rare, crimes of violence and especially .'murders, are more numerous than in England. No doubt police cases in no license towns have been reduced in number, but it is only with crime of a rough and coarse description that the police deal, and'for every one act of bodily injury there are probably hundreds of anti-social acts of conduct which never come into court, though causing infinitely more harm to the community It thus follows that the number of police rases affords very little indication of the moral standard of the community. The real evil is not alcohol itself, hut the lack of self-control in those who abuse it. There is a mental deficiency that can only be cured by the cultivation of self-control and self-denial. The mental and moral deficiency that lie at the root of alcoholism cannot be cured by Prohibition, though, in acute cases, asylum treatment for a prolonged period may enable a patient to regain his former condition. Ray Lankester writes in the “Fortnightly Review” lor September, 1896:—“The people that alcohol eliminates are those who are so constituted mentally they are tempted to bake it to excess. Therefore, the tendency of : evolution:’-is-'to, produce a race capable of sitting down to Roods of liquor without the define tp >geb drunk.” It is true tlfktk-’the'alcoholic himself is not the chief sufferer, but those dependent on him. The following remedies will help to meet this ppi^rt:—

1. Young people;.,should be educated in the so that they v/ould'dreadl the danger of marrying into a -family tainted with alcoholism. At present, ther?-'(is-Imth< : and culpable indifiei;en&, toi this'danger-. • ■ ; 2.'No confirmed inebriate should be al-j IpwedHo propagate, hi? .spt}cies,',i-A colony .for eadi s<hd shbuldf*bs established on a itirge landj-preferably an inland. Ei\eryrcomfort should' be -provided. A variety of productive, industries slnruld be ..on.) : and would contribute largely arid probably,.entirely -meet the expenses. Tins is'done .in and why should it not- be’ ,d6rie here.? >*= The number of inebriates won Id 'dimiST&K'iin'i-each -generation, until drunkenness became as rare as leprosy. For it is- an hereditary defect. Our attention is much engrossed with the glaring results of insobriety, that we neglect the real hereditary cause, the mental and moral deficiency, which would i-ontinue in spite of prohibition, and show itself in other ways.

He admits that the bar traffic requires drastic reforms, and advocates the establishment of model public houses, where the licensee lias .no personal interest in encouraging drinking. This has been done in England. The licensee is a carefully selected man with a good fixed salary, which (he loses if he does not fail to discourage immoderate drinking. Dr. Symes says that he would go. further than this, and forbid the consumption of spirits on licensed premises and thus prevent the practice of ‘nipping,” which is so injurious to health. He.concludes by saying: Prohibition may win for a short time, and.no other country offers such a favorable field for the, experiment as New Zealand on account of its isolated position; but, that a British race will for longsubmit to be deprived of beer, I canQpt* I dieve,”