TEMPERANCE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 877, 21 December 1888, Page 7

TEMPERANCE.

A TEMPERANCE SETTLEMENT IN T V 7 AUSTRALIA. The Temperance News says that the settlement at Mildura established by the Chaffey brothers will be interesting, not only, as an ‘ irrigation ’ oolony, but as demonstrating whether in Australia the same results follow as in other places where intoxicating drinks are not permitted to be sold, Mildura is practically a prohibition colony, the Government having empowered the enterprising firm directing operations to •xolnde' public houses. It is perhaps early yet to speak of results, but the Argus ' correspondent on'the 24th nit. says ‘ One : of the most .notable features of Mildura . Is the absence of anything approisohing crime in the settlement, notwithstanding that we have a population of 500 souls. One school i* at' work with promising results, and / several churches are in bourse of erection.’. We are further informed that application has been; made to the New South Wales Government for a' lease of the land on the opposite bank of .the Murray so as to prevent the planting of public-houses in the vioinity ’ , of the settlement, and that the application has been granted. The friends of sobriety will have a doable Interest therefore in the 1 ; 7 snccess of the irrigation colony. 1 "" THE TROUBLES OF A TEETOTAL _ ‘ ; M-D- / - v .. f * It is notan easy thing,’ said Dr Boasfield, when addressing a meeting of the British Women’s Temperance Association, * to be a '< teetotal doctor. - It may Surprise some to! hear that my experience as a general practi* tioner shows me that whilst the publicans, and I have many of them among my patients/ see and own the advantages that are likely to aoorne from the faot that their dootor’s head will always be clear, his hand always steady, his faculties always fully at oom> maud, his teetotallom is decidedly a disadvantage to him so far as the general public is concerned. Any effort which he makes in: the .direction of diminishing his .patients’ con-; sumption of alcohol is looked upon with ens-! pician, and he himself is regarded as a right- j msfming b ( ut wrong-headed man, or a nar-] jrow-minded bigot. Nor does he receive i from the total abstainers a support which: might in'some measure reconcile him to the : 'cold shoulder whioh he experiences from the > generalpnblic. -.1 know of only one amongst all whom my praotice Includes, for

whose patronage I am indebted to my total abstinence principles, and'Bhe is tbe wife of a poor working-man. If all the ladies who are interested iu the Temperance movement 'Wonld make their medical attendants aware that this was an essential ‘ point, I believe there wonld soon be a vast difference: in this respect. Until this is done,; however, Ido not think that any marked improvement in the attitude of the medical profession can be looked for, and women will still continue to go down, and down, and down, as the result of habits oontraoted under medical r advice, and, unfortunately, begun in times of physical weakness, when the mental power of resistance ia at its minimum.