"ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND BLUE RIBBONISM." TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7093, 7 November 1884, Page 4

"ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND BLUE RIBBONISM." TO THE EDITOR.

3lK,—You published in your supplement, to Saturday's paper an extract from the Saturday Review, en an article in the London Times under the above heading, and I should like to say a few words on tho subject, as doubtless many people here have seen the article. There is one thing that cannot help striking the reader very forcibly, and that is, that either the cause of Blue Ribbonism has been very weakly championed, or that the best anßwers have not been noticed. The writer in the original article says: "If alcohol is a useful ingredient of daily food, the lamentations poured forth over the national drink bill are so misplaced as they would be over the national shoe bill." I quite agree with him, and would even go further and say, "If alcohol is a harmless luxury, the lamentations over the money spent in it are misplaced." But it is just that little " if" that forms our point of divergence. The time has quite gone by for arguing whether alcohol is a useful or harmless ingredient or not. It is almost universally admitted that it is. When auch impartial and unimpressionable bodies as insurance companies are willing to take risks on total retainers' lives on considerably more favourable terms than the most moderate of drinkere, it is surely time to say that that phase of the argument is beyond question. The writer then tries to make a point by saying, " Many a good man is injuring his health and diminishing his usefulness in order to adhere, for the sake of example, to a fantastic deprivation." That is also true, and thank God for it. I would not only admit it, but rejoice in the fact; and, Sir, whilst the Gospel of Christ has power in men's hearts, there will never be wanting those who will willingly lay down their lives in the discharge of duty or the amelioration of tho condition of their fellow men. The writer descends below argument when he speaks of the " wearers of the blue " as being in the main persons of inferior physical development and intellectual power, and such a statement requires no refutation. It is also unfair to say, as an argument against Blue Ribbonism, that " the best work of the world has been done by moderate drinkers." Of course it has. No one would think of saying it had been done by drunkards, and up to even 20 years ago total abstainers were almost unknown. Now, thank God, things are different, and we see around us young men and women of great promise growing up, firmly grounded in the principles of total abstinence, who have never tasted the insidious poison, and when they and their children have had a hand in the moulding of the world's course it will be time to compare moderate drinkers with total abstainers, and not till then.;

I will say nothing about the good that has been done in the reclaiming of drunkards and tho conversion of dens of infamy and vice into happy homes —far are not Euch cases known to everyone? They are; and the wider the influence of the Blue Ribbon Army extends the better it will be in every way for this fair land of ours, for the Blue Ribbon missionaries not only endeavour to teach total abstinence, but to bring its converts under the influence of the Prince of Peace.

I should certainly like to know how an " unanswerable point" is made by saying that the intemperance of our measures prevents moderate improvement.. That same argument has been used against every reform, and I am at a loss to know why it should " rankle deeply in tbe minds of total abstainers." Virulent diseases demand drastic treatment, aad though we are thankful for " measures of moderate improvement," we shall never be content until we have banished the " cursed thing" from our land, and we regard these "moderate measures" only as so many steps in that direction. The ramifications of the liquor traffic are so widespread that we are constantly finding ourselves confronted by opposition in the most unexpected quarters, and from those who, one would think, could only have words of praise and encouragement. It is only by this process of reasoning that we can at all understand such a paper as the London Times lending ita prestige and influence to an attack on an organisation that, next to the preaching of the Gospel, has done more than anything else to make hundreds of thousands happy and comfortable.

As to what the working man should drink in place of beer, that is a question quite outside Blue Ribboniarn. For my own part, I think the less one drinks at all the better; but if a drink is needed, I know of nothing more refreshing on a hot day than cold tea, though many speak highly of oatmeal and water flavoured with lemon and sugar. Besides these, lemonade made from the lemon direct, or apples or rhubarb stewed with water added, whilst somewhat mors expensive, are considerably cheaper than beer or spirits, and infinitely more wholesome.

Apologising for trespassing at such a length on your valuable space,—l am, &c, David Gain, Hon. Sec. Otago Blue Ribbon Societies' Union.

Dunedin, November 4,