"AN HONEST GLASS OF BEER."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19860, 2 February 1928, Page 14

"AN HONEST GLASS OF BEER."

Sir,—Mr. Stallworthy's phillipic on beer in Monday's Herald is such ample confirmation and practical admissiou of the illusions dominating the prohibitionist mentality that it is needless for me to refer to them any further. -He might, however, have been a little more temperate in his condemnation, seeing that his own city, Auckland, has derived so much benefit, of a public nature, from beer and that in "dry" areas—the King Country, par example—lawlessness is so rampant from lack of it. As we say in the classics, "Übi cerevisia, ibi munificentia; übi vetitum, ibi malum." (Where there's beer, there's bounty; where it's barred, there's badness!) We are still waiting for an answer to Mr. Bankart's indictment which appeared in your issue of the 21st inst.— it, indeed, it is not too big a hurdle for the New Zealand Alliance—or its disciples—to tackle! John W. Warren. Hamilton, January 31. Sir, —To < "Scientist" I would reply:— I am not discussing "moderate drinkers," but "moderate drinking" of alcoholic liquors. The "system 1 would get going to do away with drunkenness first" is education. For this reason I challenge the alleged "honesty" of a glass of beer, on the physiological ground that alcohol is an insidious poison. A knowledge of this truth is, I think, fundamental to our national safety and efficiency. It is the basis for all licensing reform. There is a serious public misconception regarding the real situation that moderate-drinking and not drunkenness is our national periL Moderate drinking, not total abstinence, leads to drunkenness. Six thousand first convictions for drunkenness in bonnie New Zealand in one year indicate how unsafe the path of "moderate" drinking is. But those who never drink themselves into a Police Court do not escape penalty. "The powers of conception and judgment are from the beginning distinctly affected, although he who takes alcohol is quite unconscious that it has this effect. . . The actual facts have made me an opponent of alcohol" (Kraepelin). "A man under the influence of small quantities of alcohol has no right to believe his own senses" (Professor Sims-Woodhead). One glass of beer will produce a degree of brain-cell paralysis and the damage to the nervous system, both in structure .nd function, will correspond to the quantity of alcohol taken. Hence the automobile is one factor driving us to total abstinence. How generally the efficiency of body-tissue is fatally lowered by alcohol, let life assurance companies testify. This emperor of drugs is the friend of all diseases. It is not surprising that the 'Bible condemns utterly intoxicating beverages. "The Wines of Scripture" (Mrs. Lee-Cowie) will help "Scientist" to a careful study of this subject and make him regret ever calling facts "ridiculous." "Wine" is a generic term. Centuries before Pasteur grape juice was a common drink in Mediterranean countries. It was called "wine." It is to-day, but fermentation is prevented, by filling the necks of the "bottles" with olive oil, thus, excluding air. It will keep in its pure state for years. Water, fruit juice, quenches thirst. Alcohol produces thirst. Of course, the "moderate" holds a strategic position in the prohibition controversy. When he begins to understand what alcohol does to him, popping corks and gurgling liquids devilised by fire-water that takes the man out. of manhood, will be at a discount. The Arabs, who gave it its name—"al ghole"—had the right idea. Alcohol, "an evil spirit." A. J. Stau-wortht.