HOTTER THAN HELL.

NZ Truth, Issue 120, 5 October 1907, Page 5

HOTTER THAN HELL.

THE CURSE OF THE SLY-GROG SHANTY

And the Pernicious Poisoner of Liquor.

The Hot Belle of Horopito.

Missionaries Wanted

A 1 couple of weeks ago, "Truth," rather l.iildly, it wu-ild appear, dealt with the condition of things generally on the Horopito section of the Main Trunk Railway. Whatever was said then, however, was confined to the manner m which the worker was treated by the bosses, how the bosses contrived that the storekeeper got paid, and, judging from the kindly interest which the said bosses took m the storekeeper, it was not at all unreasonable to ask whether the bosses concerned were getting a "cut" for their trouble. This week, however, something of quite a different order is to be told concerning Horopito, something calculated to make one's hair st^.id on end and ask whether this is New Zealand, "Cod's Own Country," as it is so blasphemously proclaimed to be. It is not so very long ago that Wellington's Anglican Bishop set out on a clerical cruise alon;- the Main Trunk route.

"Frederick Wellington" did not have too much to say re his visit, but actions m his case spoke louder- than mere vaporous words. He announced that missionaries would be sent into the King Country, and when missionaries have to be sent into the country, and such a country so blessed and prosperous as New Zealand is, there must be something doing. Anyhow, "Truth" supposes the mi ssi oners were sent forth and are now laboring m the Lord's Vineyard along the Main Trunk route, and those missioners certainly deserve to be successful. For our part we wish them joy, because they will find that they are taking on a proposition that devil-dodgers of the J. J. North and Dr. Gibbs type would leave severely alone or refer to as the heathens m our midst. . To say, however, that the worker on the Main Trunk railway is a sin-soddened, HARD-DRINKING, BESTIAL BRUTE, would be a gross a^d exaggerated libel on the working-man, the majority of whom, we are p'cr.oed to believe, are hard-working,- clean-minded and clean-living individuals, who toil incessantly, bounding and bumptious bosses notwithstanding, for V 2 sake of others defending on them. But all are not the same. There is a black sheep m every family, o"d where hundreds of toilers are gathered, there will be found wasters, idlers, and beer and whisky swipers, who live only for the sake of "enjoying" a continuous drunken orgy. That the ravages of drink are unmistakeably manifested v. here there is a gathering or a camp of working men is a statement hard, indeed, to refute. It is m these -circumstances that a man is really able to grasp .the significance of the wretched misery that drink is responsible for. In such circumstances one soon learns to regard drink as a curse and no amount of plausible argument will ever afterwards remove that deep impression. "Truth" is not setting out on a temperance campaign, but what it does want to say - and to say plainly— is this : That more than missionaries are required on the Main Trunk route. What' is wanted is a strong posse of policemen, not pimps, to gather m the sly-grog seller. What is further wanted is the prompt gaoling of fiends who sponge and loaf on the hard-working-man, who poison him, who send him to the lunatic asylum by the awful and pernicious system of doctoring the grog they sell to him at an exorbitant rate. With the slygrog seller, nobody has any sympa-

thy, while the adulterator of liquor deserves a fate more far-reaching m its effect than the unfortunate Opunake individual, who was tarred and feat^erecl and otherwise svbmitted to unmentionable indignities some time hack. The Main Trunk route is "Studded by the shanty of the sly- . grog seller. The poi?^ncr, the adulterator of liquor, abounds like leaves m autumn, the bush is FULL OF RAVING- LUNATICS, sent mad by pouring the vile stuff down their parched throats. If missionar ;s can cure any of these ills, well and good. At any rate, if the police ado* t l new tactics and relentlessly pursued the sly-grog seller, and the liquor adulterator, the missionaries could be given whatever credit they might claim for having lifted a blight off the land. Of ail places where the hellish sly-grog r"'-" veyor and. the "doctor" of liquor are playing merry Hades, the little oasis m the sinful desert called Horopito is hard to be^.t What the name means m the Maori lr-*\guage "Truth" can't ."ay ; if it has relat^n to hell we would not m the ' tbe -u-'pris- j cd. That men, and some of t '*~m de- i cent and respectable hard-working men, when sober, should be allowed to drink themselves mad is perhaps nothing to dov'th the boss or overseer. His concern only is with the man's body; his soul d can be damned, he can be 1 "ormed from a normal being into a raving lunatic, yet the boss says nothing nor raises a hand to stay him. Let the storekeeper be owed a few bobl and something different is heard. At Horopito, this paper is informed, by one well calculated to know, that at nearly every so-called boarding-house shanty there any amount of whisky is procurable at £1 per bottle. There is a policeman named Carey m the district, but Carey is evidently one of those blind persons who will not see, or else he winks at, the illegal traffic. No matter which it is., the fac.t is indisputably this, whisky, real red-hot, kill-me-quick stagger juice is purveyed at £l per bottle, and the. wonder is where on earth' it all comes from. There it is, at anyrate, and I there it is drank, and once a drop of J it is touched no man will stop till he I drops down speechless or wanders ; off into the wild£ a ravin-r lunatic, and while on tbis matter it would be j interesting io -t/nrn, ii the information is available, how many Huiatics 1 have been sent down to Mt,. View

m the King Country.

or Porirua Asylums from this Main Drunk muddle. Even at Horopito, there are boarding-houses and board-ing-houses. Some arc worse than others. They're all bad, but there are degrees even m badness. The board-ing-houses at Horopito are known principally by the greased-lightning they have on tap, and as one or two, perhaps three, make a specialty of

SENDING MEN RAVING, they are, of course, reckoned topnotchers m the "worst" division. That, such things as "Truth" is about to relate should happen, even at Horopito, seems incredible, nevertheless,, sad to say, they are going on, and there is no power apparently ; to prevent them. . . Some of the swipcrs, who only love whisky when it is r, bitey," when it has a tendancy to make them paralytic m a short space of time, are regarded as harddrinkers, and that doesn't necessarily mean they take on nothing soft. Some of these swankifiers seem like Ajax. to defy the lightning even if corked up m a bottle, and of course there are others whose weak brains were never intended to stand anything stronger than soda-water. In the Horopito district, like 'everywhere else, the man who stands his grog best is a sort of metallic deity, and . the man who can't be beaten by Horopito snake-juice deserves every credit. Be that as it may, hard drinker or bad drinker or anything, at Horopito the r e are girls, mere maidens, perhaps, who can swank with the best of them, and it is round these mere girls and their parents and the whisky and the hospital and the lunatic asylum that this paper proposes to have a sort of heart to heart talk, as the good young men of the V.M.C.A. say. There is a boardinghouse at Hotopito kept by one woman, who has fancy men, and. the fancymen stay m favor as long as they have staying power and spending silver. There is a daughter of the house whose name would suggest an admixture of cayenne and molten lead simmering m a pot on the hobs of hell. She, to put it tersely, is hot, and drinks her whisky like a man ; indeed, m the language of one correspondent, some of the girls at Green's Christchurch pubbery are only a circumstance to her. One day she went out shooting with her "lover." The same day a case of whisky had arrived, and as the "lover" met with an accident m the biish, he was shot, it is said, some nasty -things were said concerning her. The "lover" is no sooner down to it, than "hot stuff," alleged to be 18, hears that another likely candidate IN TI.S LOVE STAKES owns £80. The next thing, hoard <•* that "the maiden" is engaged to be married. She soon flashed a gold ring and a gold watch, and it is further said that she exhibited about £14 worth of clothes bought, of course, by the new masher. Next the "boy" drew out w' t remained of his banking account and presented it to her,, and everything was ready for the wedding. A wedding cake was purchased, costing £1 10s, It arrived, and was set up m the shanty, and as a case of whisky w?.s also on hand, the spectacle of fifteen big, brawny, hungry navvies seated round a table scoffing a £l 10s wedding cake, and toasting the healths of what, after all, were only, a phantom bride and bridegroom, is something that must only be imagined to be proper-ly appreciated. The girl, it seems, changed her mind at the last moment, the big fiat that spent his hard-earned swings*. n. her vowed all sorts of things, but as she is the belle of the village, the. other "boys" of course arc notprepared to see her harmed. Sh© is now waiting for the next mug to happen along, and she plays for thcra well, that is, if a cigarette m her mouth, her dress tucked up over her knees while on horseback are circumstances sufficiently strong to act aa a m^net to the amorous propensities of the 'orny- ? anded mug, to whom a bit of skirt must indeed, be a welcome change to han- nST -g a pick and shovel m the drv-as-dust King Country. : Nor is "hot stuff"- the only hot wench m the village. There is another whose age is something like 17. Her mother keeps a board-ing-house and sells knock-out swankeV. This little dear is evidently, apeing the other. At anyrate, she proved hot stuff for an old fool of over 50, who is a navvy and who m the vernacular got shook on this little tart. There is no fool like an old fool, we often hear, but this old idiot made his little "duck" a present of £30, under what conditions, of course, he and she alone know. Anyhow, she skipped s>S to Wellington and had a fine time of it, and when the old galoot heard of it ha went mad ; m fact, madder than th« CHAIN-LIGHTNING DRINKING VARIETY. He sought policejaid, and there it end-. cd. Anyhow, he took to drink, and is now confined m the lunatic asylum. Queer doings, these, of a verity, nevertheless they are vouched for by\ correspondents to this paper, and it looks very much as if Horopito wants reforming a lot. The frst thing, however, that wants attending to is the sly-grog seller and the liquor adulterator. If this crowd are wiped out, happiness, at anyrate, might reign m Horopito, "Hot Stuff" notwithstanding.