The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1895. GRAPES AND PROHIBITION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10600, 8 March 1895, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1895. GRAPES AND PROHIBITION.

Already we hear the cry of “ sour grapes ” raised in connection with the efforts of the Government to encourage viticulture in New Zealand. No sooner had Signor Brogato, the Victorian Government expert, pronounced Central Otago to be well adapted for grape-growing than the objection was raised that national prohibition was coming, and that capital expended in planting and cultivating vines would, therefore, be money wasted. This ill-advised and unfounded cry will not, it is hoped, prevent the development of viticulture in New Zealand. Aside altogether from the contention that wine-drmking is conducive to sobriety, there is no doubt that a plentiful supply of grapes would be of immense benefit to the people of this colony. They need not be used for wine-making, as they are both delicious and nutritious in their natural state, or dried, in the form of raisins; and have not the prohibitionists hitherto been foremost in reminding us that the “juice of the grape” is an excellent and non-in-toxicating beverage? Vegetarians, “ wielding their one idea like a flail,” do not hesitate to declare that a reform in our dietary that should confine us to the fruits of the earth would solve many of the pressing political and social problems of the day. They assert, for instance, that were their creed generally adopted a prohibition or local option law would he superfluous, as the man addicted to fruit juice despises the allurements of the public-house. Were grass fields, now devoted to the rearing of sheep and cattle, turned into orchards, more mouths could be fed and more hands could find work. The rush to the overcrowded towns would be checked, and the army of the unemployed would dwindle away. Brain work, thoy claim, can ha hotter done without flesh food. Monsieur Sarcey, the Drench critic, has written to Le Petit Journal, saying that his head is far clearer for work than when he lived on a mixed diet. In Tennyson’s lines to E. Fitzgerald there is support of this claim. The lately deceased post wrote:

“ Who live on milk and meal and grass ; ***** hut none can say That Lenten fare makes Lenten thought. Who reads your golden Eastern lay. Than which I know no version done In English more divinely well." Further, the diet reformers allege that “ anti-fat ” preparations and regimen would he rendered unnecessary if fruit-eating were more general. A correspondent of the London Daily News recently informed that journal of two friends of hi s, “ on ce corpulent, now of fair proportions, who effected the change,, redueiag themselves .several,

inches in girth, while improving their health by living for two or three months on an exclusive diet of fruit and milk.” The grape cure for consumption is also held in high esteem. None, therefore, but unthinking extremists will attempt to hinder the plentiful production of a luscious fruit which, though largely used in the manufacture of intoxicants, is fitted, if properly used, to promote sobriety, health and happiness.