THE DRINK PROBLEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13198, 3 February 1905, Page 5

THE DRINK PROBLEM.

TO THE EDITOIt. Sil!,—llaviiiEf read iho mosk of your cofifc. spondents' letters bearing on the abovo S rrr "} *" ls bee " " matter of gieat duhculty for me, at times, to know what many of them arc trying to prove.' So far as I can sec, Fog is trying to convert hog, and Bog is trying to cbnvcrt Fog. Toiir correspondent Mr A. S. Adams, in yoiiq yesterday's issue, malkes tho wild and ran- . dom statement that intoxicating liquor has t ono great injury to society, producing ' drunkenness and death in £ degree not equalled by war, pestilence, or any .other . known . cause. AVhat I am particularly anxious to. know about is; From whence or where doc# Mr Adams obtain his information. or statistics to verify his statements? At the present rate of slaughter )>etwceri this Kussian and Japaneso troops, and also tho recent massacres in Holy Russia, countenanced, indirectly, by tho heartless Hoiy Synod, it will ialco a long timo to kill tho same-number of colonials with real Kcohh ■ whisky" or pure malt beer. . I'll back the liquids to outstay tho powdor and lead, and besidos, the former is a little more palatable. Powder and other dangerous combustibles I am not partial to (although I have blown up a few totara logs with tho former); but I liavo had.over 100)000 alcoholic shots poured into mo during a healthy career of nearly 60 summers, in Scotland and New Zealand, and, what is more, I never had a J.P. or a baillio'to congratulate mo on the daring feat. During that timo I have only been laid up" . ; or nut into dry dock twice for a month's overhaul, not through drinking too much liquor, but through troubles Mr Adams most likely has had himself. Scotch piety, plain food to oat, combined with an easy and contented' mind, may have had a lot to do with my spiritual success in life.—l am, etc., • February 1. AucHTEnHucnTi.