MODERATE DRINKING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume III, Issue 370, 14 December 1882, Page 3

MODERATE DRINKING.

The favourite argument in behalf of making total abstinence compulsory is that voluntary abstinence has failed to put an end to drnnkenness. This is much the same thing as saying that if meu are allowed liberty of action, some of them Avill always abuse it ; aud, if this admission is to be regarded as a sufficient reason for depriving them of liberty in one point, it will be equally efficacious for depriving them of liberty in every other point. There are two considerations, moreover, Avhich go to show that this failure to put an Cnd to drunkenness is in part the fault of total abstainers. One is that they are so convinced that alcohol is poison and that those Avho sell it are on better than murderers, aud those Avho buy it are no better than suicides, that they will not help by so much as a finger to check the evils which are undoubtedly incident to the traffic. Consequently what might be a very valuable auxiliary force in putting doArn drunkenness by reasonable methods is altogether Avastcd. The other consideration is tbatthe violence of total abstainers loses them a great deal of support Avhich they might otherwise command. If total abstinence were put forward in its true aspect, not as a practice of universal obligation, but as one Avhich becomes obligatory in all cases in which drinking intoxicating liquor in any quantity, however small, leads to drinking it to excess, a total abstinence association Avould meet Avith universal support. As it is, they insist on regarding those who preach total abstinence to others withot practising it themselves as so many castaways, and as a natural result the castaways are not always inclined to give them very hearty co-operation in bringing about the suppression of drunkenness Avhich the total abstainers are professedly anxious to see accomplished. "We say professedly anxious, because a great many preachers of total abstinence have become so eager about the particular means by which they have chosen to Avork, that they have pretty avcll lost sight of the end to which these ineaus are supposed to be ! directed. They are ready enough to point to the evils of drunkenness when it suits their purpose, but they AA'ould rather see the nation divided into drunkards and total abstainers than composed entirely of moderate drinkers. What they AA'ant to put down is not drunkenness but drinking. — Saturday Review.