TEMPERANCE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 767, 12 November 1886, Page 6

TEMPERANCE.

TEMPERANCE IN THE ARMY. The Church of England Temperance Chronicle states that under the patronage of Lady Ailsa, Temperance work is actively carried on amongst the soldiers stationed at Ayr. A WISE PROVISION. A curious prohibition, says the Sunderland Echo, is in force at a Durham colliery, to which a new agent had been appointed a few months ago. There now exists a colliery regulation to the effect that if any of the officials are known to enter a publichouse in the village for the purpose of taking a drink, they will subject themselves to dismissal from their occupations. The prohibition was made known to the officials by written notices, served six weeks ago, and signed by the manager of a colliery, who stated he was requested to make the intimation.

FRENCH DOCTORS ON ALCOHOLIf we may believe the report of a learned society, the French character is changing, or if not the character of brenchmen, certainly that of Parisians. It is the Academy of Medicine that ha 3 come to this conclusion, as the result of investigations undertaken by direction of the Senate. Some legislation was proposed to restrict the extraordinarily increased consumption of alcohol, and the chambers thereupon invited suggestions from the Academy, which has just published its views and the reasons for them. It finds that iu 40 years the consumption of spirits in France has just doubled. Wine is ceasing to be drunk, and even the production of brandy has diminished very considerably. All kinds of liquors distilled from grain, from beetroot, or from potatoes, have taken its place, and even absinthe, rum, and kirsch are manufactured with alcohols which have not been rectified. Thus, the information obtained shows that the evil takes a double form. There is an exeess of alcohol, and there e is a marked depreciation in its quality. Even the wine consumed suffers. The ravages of phylloxera caused « dimunition in the annual production of the French vineyards amounting to thirty-eight millions of hectolitres. The loss had to be supplied, and the deficiency has been made good by the introduction of foreign wines. These, to enable them to be kept and to be transported, have been largely fortified with spirit, and, to keep the price low,, with spirit of an inferior and, in many cases, of a pernicious quality. It seems, too, under all these influences, the French character has been threatened with change. Light-hearted- ) ness is leaving the people ; exuberance and gaiety are being changed for the qualities that come in the wake of constant intoxication and drunkenness. The Senate probably had questions of finance under its consideration when it sugested an inquiry which leads to graver conclusions and the establishment of a more serious state of things.—Pall Mall Gazette.