THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1900.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 11542, 29 November 1900, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1900.

The annual meeting of the local branch of the Prohibition League directs public attention to a question of which all good citizens recognise the 'seriousness, however much they may differ as to the most practicable remedy. For drunkenness is not merely a great human failing, but a vice unfortunately common in our own race and in our own colony. "Whether we look to moral suasion to persistently modify it or to drastic measures to stamp it out, we all know that it is the greatest direct cause of poverty and distress, that it is responsible for the unexpected size of our old age pensions account, that it largely fills our gaols and reformatories, and that it contributes in a marked degree to our insanity-rate. There can be no doubt that the elimination of our unhappy racial tendency to inordinately crave after the physical and ! mental effects of alcoholic drink would work a reform in society as great as the change it would make m our taxation-methods. We are uopeful that such a reform is gradually being effected. As generation succeeds generation and self-re-sfraint in this respect becomes more arid more accepted as an essential of conduct, men will doubtless see in th'v coming century as remarkable progress made in the direction of temperance and sobriety as we can now see has been made in the past. Imagine the Duke of Wellington asking the citizens of Georgian London not , to "treat" the heroes of Waterloo ! We are apt to forget, in

Ous gftfidenlng obeerviitibn of the jMftsufti of inlemperftno© still existing, thai Iftsfe §§ftfcu?y it was respectable" wild remUftbl© to bo "as drank m ft teWi" feMt from the King Oft tie thl'OM'ta the beggar on the Str§Sfe9 t!l§ FSftiuitff of ft condition of Inglorious iflieiiiefttlea was esteemed all §B¥iable &»d laudable jW66§§§« Far" m W8 Still fall short, of national Roioißty, we have at least iWrtoved ihi drinking habit from ftffleng the febifigl of which we are nationally jn'oud, We owe this improvement to many causes, not the least being this unflinching agitation carried en by temperance advocates, who, with few exceptions, have been associated with ami nobly supported by the churches. Whatever our opinions on the legislative question now raised among us"! from the same quarter, we may all cordially hope that the influence upon public thought and private morals wrought by the temperance movement will increase with the century and strengthen with the years. But while we must all acknowledge the improvement made from generation to generation in the drinking habits of our people, it is unfortunately not demonstrable that the improvement is steady and continuous. On the contrary, one of the most lamentable features of what are commonly called "good times" i 3 the marked increase which they show in the amount of intoxicating liquor consumed. Instead of making use of the fat years to lay by provision for the lean, instead of devoting their increased incomes to making themselves industrially independent, or even to the enlargement of their material comfort, a very considerable number evidently find in prosperity little but increased opportunity to gratify morbid cravings. This is so in all parts of the world. The effects of excessive drinking notoriously increase in every community as social improvements bring the means wherewith to gratify appetite within the reach of viciouslyinclined persons. This is so noticeable in Australasia that Mr. Coghlan, while questioning the magnitude as an insanity cause commonly ascribed to drinking, points out that insanity really increases most during times of general prosperity, and not during times of commercial depression. He says: "It is very probable that the most immediate effects of depressed times is to send to the asylums a number of harmless but demented persons, who in more prosperous days are supported by their relatives. On the other hand, the quota of admissions to asylums in prosperous times is maintained by insanity induced, directly and indirectly, by means of indulgence which high wages and large gains commonly afford." This meaningful criticism is further borne out by the fact that suicide increases faster in "good times" than in " bad times," an apparent anomaly which must have impressed those of our readers who have taken notice of the remarkable amount of self-destruc-tion recorded of late in our news columns. Coming to our own New Zealand experience we find that from the early '80' to the middle of the '00' there was a marked reduction in our liquor consumption. Latterly, the increase, although it has not reached the previous level, has been unmistakable ; by an irony of fate and policy, our worse than waste las made our national balance-sheet exceedingly satisfactory. We quote the following official statement of consumption per head, excluding Maoris from the estimate: —

The quarterly returns indicate that our liquor bill for 1900 will be even larger than that for 1899. Side by side with this our insanity and suicide rate increased steadily, our in-sanity-rate having risen from 1 in every 393 persons during 1884 to 1 in every 296 during 1899. Speaking of the effect of drinking upon the insanity-rate, our New Zealand figures give it as a cause in 14.36 per cent, of cases during 1899, as against 12.50 per cent, of cases during 1898. World statistics on the same point vary from 12 per cent, in Italy to 26 per cent, in America and 28 per cent, in Scotland, these figures being for male patients. But while some authorities esteem the rating to be much too low, Mr. Coghlan, however, finds that careful examination does not bear out the importance attributed to intemperance as a cause of insanity. He gives the experience • of New South Wales as showing that only 9.10 per cent, of total admissions to insane hospitals were traceable to drunkenness ; of these a large number rapidly recovered, and the number in hospital at any one time never exceeded 5.5 per cent. He gives hereditary influence as the most potent cause of insanity ; our New Zealand asylum authorities are continually protesting against the lack of a public Inebriate Institution which compels them to receive among the insane inebriates who should not be sent to them. The same complaint comes from our prisons' officials. As a question resulting from the unfortunate prevalence of the drinking habit, the matter of the treatment of inebriates has received world-wide attention. It is forcing itself upon our colonial thought, as the fact becomes apparent that by constant self-surrender the habit of drunkenness becomes so strongly rooted as'to be a veritable disease. At Home, more or less effective steps have already been taken, but in New Zealand we have been largely content with passing initiative resolutions and publishing prohibition orders. In reality, the colonial is not the drinker that his British brother is. Scotland used to consume 2.60 gallons of spirits per head yearly, and still consumes over two gallons, with results to which every observant visitor testifies. England consumes 30 gallons of beer per head yearly, and as much spirits per head as New Zealand. Ireland, in spiritdrinking, is second only to Scotland. At the risk of seeming to take easy consolation, we believe that we can see in our comparative colonial freedom from the terrible vice of our

race, proof that a successful stand is being made against it. The more 'so as, throughout North Europe— which lags behind the kindred realm of liquor-drinking is still more widespread and excessive. The Swede drinks twice as much spirits as the Scotchman ; the German as much as the Irishman, not to mention his 20 gallons of beer. Great as the evil is, deeply as it is rooted in our manners and customs, in spite of occasional set-backs, the persistent efforts made to establish and inculcate a higher standard of personal self-restraint have not been fruitless. If the temperance movement ha* not produced a prohibitive nation, at any rate it has produced a Lord Roberts. This, to many, is the greater thing.

Beer. Spirits. Wine, gnls. gals. gals. 1883 ... 9.435 1.038 .315 1886 7.861 .820 .212 1889 ... ;.. 7.624 .598 • .176 1892 7.807 .708 .174 1895 7.421 .629 .135 1898 8.427 .634 .146 1899 8.583 . 653 .148