(Advt.) "HELP HUMANITY" REPLIES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 9 April 1919, Page 4

(Advt.) "HELP HUMANITY" REPLIES.

(To the Editor.) bir, —My letter published in your paper on the sth was written for the purpose of inviting voters to con»d«r the effect that Prohibition will have in the event of any further visitation of the influenza plague. I certainly tried, and I think successfully, to fairly express the result of Prohibition when I said: "If Prohibition is carried, no one will be allowed to keep a bottle of it in their homes, and will be allowed to get a small quantity from the chemist by a. doctor's prescription (to be paid for)." Mr F. C. Spratt, replying, chooses to designate my statement as "mislwi& ing," and my warnings as "bogus"; and he says that "medical alcohol will be prescribed only by competent persons." I cannot quite see that the effect of Prohibition, as stated by Mr Spratt, is so very different to that as stated by me as to merit Mr Spratt's opprobrium. Mr Spratt then proceeds to assure us "that the people, having given over their habits of drinking, will be the "better patients in time of sickness." So far as the major part of the people, who take alcoholic drink in moderation, are concerned, Mr Spratt's assurance unfortunately differs from medical testimony and from the dictates of common sense; but at present I that is beside the question raised in my letter, and no one is better aware of that than Mr Spratt, try as he may to dodge it. The whole point of my j warning applies to the present moment, I and not to the future, when people "shall have given over their habits of drinking." Influenza appears at our very doors again; there is a real imminent danger threatening us at this moment, and I write to invite_ people to seriously reflect before bringing into operation a condition of things that must perforce place us at a serious disadvantage in fighting the plague. Think for one moment of the many people, far away from doctors and Government stores and chemist's shops. Think of the doctors, so nearly driven to a standstill, unable to attend th© suffering, placing them in temporary hospitals, often enough because they could not get round to homes, even in the towns, to attend to them. Look at Sydney, its death roll at present of about 160 (compare it with our thousands) calling for more doctors and more nurses, and more hospital accommodation, and with all this we are. asked to rely on the assurances of Mr Spratt and his friends that provision will be made for the use of alcohol medicinally. But for the dread gravity of the case the answer would be ludicrous. Let me say I am not writing "on behalf of the Trade," as Mr Spratt asserts, nor should that assertion be made by anyone who attempts to reply honestly or fairly to my warnings, given as they are from a feeling of anxiety and responsibility. It would be easy enough to retaliate, and assuredly Mr Spratt leaves that door wide open; but the real question before us all is too serious and too menacing to permit of anything of this nature.—I am, etc., HELP HUMANITY.