ALCOHOL IN FRANCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7383, 8 February 1902, Page 4

ALCOHOL IN FRANCE.

The wine shops are the colleges and chapels of the poor in France. The wine shops breed, in v physical atmosphere of malaria and a moral pestilence of envy acd Vrngeance, the men of crime and revolution. — Charles Dickens.

The wine of France and the beer of Germany go band in hand. Wine drinking does not promote temperanoe any more than does beer drinking. No one knows this better tban the most intelligent people in France. Since 1830 the consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased from ten million to nearly fifty million gallons per annum. No wonder that M. Janvrais is led to exclaim in the Figaro : "One might say of the twentieth century that it is truly the age of alcohol. The wine growers of France now number two and a half millions."

France drinks more spirits than any other nation — 2 48 gallons per capita as against 1.28 in England, and 1.10 in the United States.

One danger point in any evil habit in any country is the army. In recognition of this, the French Minister of War, as late as May, 1900, issued a circular in whioh he forbade the sale in the canteens of barracks' quarters, ct>mps, or exercise grounds, of any brandy or liquor with an alcoholic base, or of any of the drinks known as appetisers. He also decided that lectures should be given to the soldiers on the effects and dangers of alcoholism concurrently with the lectures on hygiene. (We have referred to this before, but tbe tim 3 is opportune to again poict out a good model for our Defence Minister).

Another department of Government, the Postal Service, is beginning to take a like oversight of its employes. The postal director of the city of Doubs has forbidden letter camera to accept alcoholic drinks from their customers both while on and off duty. Such an order must greatly fortify postmen who must of necessity go into saloons to deliver mails. May it be that the postmaster of Doubs has set the pace for all the postmasters of France, and not of France alone, but of other nations as well.