WHAT ARE THE FACTS?

Gisborne Times, Volume L, Issue 5136, 31 March 1919, Page 5

WHAT ARE THE FACTS?

DR. VAUNTINE AND THE SO-CALLED “PROCLAMATION”

rying out the inspectorial duties devolving upon them under the Sale of Foods and Drugs Act, which law, inter alia, provides

For the analysis, by public analysts, of any article of food or drink or of any drug which may be sold, offered for sale, or exposed for sale and for the inspection of any place where any food, drink or drug is intended for sale ;

For stringent measures to prevent adulteration of food, drink or drugs and even for the inspection of piafiss whsre such articles are manufactured or packed; and

For official intervention (on a complaint by anyone prepared to pay a prescribed fee and the cost of a sample) by the purchase of any article of feed, drink or A WARNING TO THE ELECTORS. I

TESTIMONY GIVEN BEFORE EPIDEMIC COMMISSION.

If adulterated and doped liquor is being sold anywhere in this Dominion the Prohibition Party have missed a grand advertisement by not assisting the Department as is provided under tlie law. The fact that they _ have secured no evidence on the point is eloquent testimony to their insincerity. WHY THE PUBLIC SHOULD BE WARNED.

It is common property that the Prohibition Party is doing everything within its power to induce the electors to forget that alcohol proved an invaluable aid during the influenza epidemic. There can be no question also but that many of their one-time supporters disagree with them* now as to the merits of alcohol, with the result that the party is to-day but a shadow of its former self. Practically every prohibitionist who was seriously ill with the dreadful pneumonic influenza had spirits prescribed for his use whilst convalescent as well as during the course* of the disease. Many Prohibitionists are, indeed, only too willing to acknowledge that they owe their lives ,and thenrapid recovery mainly to alcohol. That the Prohibition Party cannot get a large section of their one-time supporters to take an active part on their side in this campaign is, therefore, not surprising. Of the- influenza epidemic it may truly be said that it did more than could have been achieved by any other means to swell the ever-increasing army of people who have become convinced that the best solution of the Liquor Problem is tjf reform or natigname the traffic, ngit to destroy if. | Jf V AN P|Sf4T| ALL TH&Y DRi\AL!§ITIME i|ISCLA|MKDj Such Lein a the position jfche Prohibition partvl is at fits wfs’ end to devise somoJf'TSeJjenle whereby the value of ahjnhol rfr-'disease may be misrepresent®} and discounted. The leaders of flit Prohibition movement know that at tis useless to appeal to the medical Profession for sympathy, for no medical practitioner of high repute is tillely to contradict Dr. Cantlie, England’s greatest authority on plagues, who has told the world | that “alcohol is the only antidote for the new influenza.” In order to play on the feelings of the electors, however, the Prohibition party is making a terrible rumpus over the circulation in a reported unauthorised form of evidence given by Dr. Yalintine (Inspector-Gen-eral of Hospitals and Chief .Health Officer of this Dominion) before the Epidemic G'ommission. But their w(h)ine falls very flat. Drv Valintine, it will be carefully noted,j does not go back on a single syllable of the valuable expert evidence tendered by Him before the inquiry. He sin#y disclaims responsibility on the Jprt of the Department and on the ffart of himself for the circulation of#the so-called “proclamation.” Or# second thoughts. Dr. Valintine f must readily acknowledge that the electors were not likely to believe either the Department or himself '§&uld be a party to the publication <|? advertising matter to help either side in the campaign that is at pijp=ent ragin S # A GLEAN-CUT DECISIVE OPINION SUPPORTED BY THOS HEALTH DEPARTMENT. _ & The question now arises as to what evidence Dr. Valintine/. offered to the Epidemic Commission as to the value of alcohol in the treatment of the plague. Here is hisf'expert opinion, which has been faithfully copied from the Wellington newspapers and is bound to carry gresfc weight with the electors— & “Dr. Valintirif: Certainly from what I have se#t during the epidemic I ami cdivinced that it is necessary thaw- alcohol should be available for jthe people.”—Evening Pest rebWt, March 12. “Dr. Valiiftine: I consider that during an epidemic it should be should be possible for people to obtain liquor#’—N.Z. Times report, March 12. § “Dr. Valintine: I consider that during epidemic i l should be possible |& purchase alcohol.” —Dominion rfport, March 12.

REMEMBER THE McCARTNEY EPISODE!

The public is. therefore, warned not to swallow any advertising pabulum published by the Prohibition Party. It has no case; otherwise it would not he reduced to abusing the other side. This further warnjng is hardly necessary in view .Jf of its earlier tactics in connection the sad story that got into circulation about the imaginary “brijfal assault” suffered by Prohibition Lecturer and Organiser John JfMcCarrliey. Why was it left to Mie Police Department thdftrue facts in that casofT McCartnef, being _a teetotaller#should, undof the Prohibition theory, be an efficient physical unit ofjfne it is now disclojfd that lie is. dA the contrary, subject to fits—and am his misforTffne he will have widespread sympathy. But, instead of being assaulted as’ his concocted stnffy went, he merely had a- saizure bought about owing to becoming upseif through preparing matter for Prohibition addresses. Oh, the pity of j£! Electors! donjf be misled. Prohibition may stan# for a farcical system of State corjtrol, but it would also stand for corruption, secret manufacturing of#liquor, distribution of liquor by/ stealth, sly-grcggeries galore, deceit and perjury, the invasion of home rights a nd in general tHie wrecking of the morality of thefjcommunity; so on April 10 STRIKE OUT THE BOTTOM LINE. JPublished by Arrangement.)

Dr. Yajght-ine. clearly, has cleancut. decisive opinions on this important subject, and it is useless, therefore, forjxhe Prohibition party to try and threw any dust in the eyes of the electors with a view to deceiving them ojp this matter. As showing how milch value the Minister ior Public JHealth attaches to Dr. halmtine’s f views and to the views of jflie world’s highest authorities it may be recalled that the Hon. G. W. Russell has issued a statement that in the event of National Prohibition being carried the Government will safeguard the healih interests of the public of this Doiiunion bv carrying, ample stocks of alcohol for medicinal purposes and will/even arrange for Government doctors to provide free of charge certificates authorising holders to he allowed liquor. Under such a system New Zealand, like Canada and the “dry” States of America, will become “dry” only in parts. Residents of cities, towns and townships which will be provided with a Government doctor and will have a Government liquor store will still remain “wet,” perhaps, in some instances, exceedingly “wet.” The “dry” areas wil, be the unfortunate outlying districts where the services of a doctor may not be available for hours or for days if at all; in fact those widespread districts where a handy stimulant like spirits is so often urgently needed and hotels arc so much appreciated. Workers will naturally give country life a very wide berth under Prohibition. It would be interesting to know before-hand bow the Government liquor depots throughout New Zealand will get on in competition with the illicit distilleries and sly-grogger-ies that would flourish under National Prohibition in every part of the Dominion. A GRATUITOUS lINSULT. PROHIBITIONISTS’ MEAN TACTICS. If, however, the Hon. G. W. Russell and Dr. Valintine now wish to be saved from their- would-be new friends—the frenzied, illogical and irresponsible section of the Prohibition Party—it will occasion no surprise, for the extreme anti-liquontes in giving such wide prominence to Dr. Valintine’s disclaimer of authorship of the so-called “proclamation cunningly ’ refrained from publishing in this district his views on alcohol hut went out of their way to insult a large number of officials of the Public Health Department by stating that under National Prohibition the liquor stocked by the Health Department would be guaranteed and the public “will no longer have to put up with the doped and adulternted article!” Seemingly the Prohibition Party is so unreasonably wedded to its tottering creed that it is not prepared to give even the officials of the Public Health Department concerned in this matter credit for their. good work in so honorably car-