THE TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14579, 19 July 1909, Page 6

THE TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

> Sin,—A correspondent, "Moderate,") writes in regard to tho above, and asks if it can be true that all tho injurious * effects. claimed do really follow the consumption of alcohol, seeing that many raws have lived and thrived in suite of their heavy drinking. He also quotes a saying that " teetotallers I liavo met have invariably been weeny-looking, crabby, j, skimped-up, miserable, dead-and-alive perI mm." Surely, Sir, this correspondent . must, have como out of tho Ark. Why, t(j go no farther than Dunedin itself, we , have any number—thousands, one might , tay—<jf thoroughly well-developed men and women who have never tasted a drop of alcohol in their lives. I know hundreds such in 'Dunedin myself whom I would I back for blooming health ami healthy , plumpness against any similar number of v drinkers that could be collected anywhere J in tho world. " Moderate" aso appears to be unaware | that 15,000 doctors lately petitioned the | British Government " that teaching in favour of total abstinence be given in the day schooh," and that one of the findings of tho late Committee 011 Physical Deterioration in Great Britain was that I ''evidence was placed before the commis- ( sion showing that in abstinence is to bo sought t.hc source of muscular vigour and activity." The whole of France and a great many cities in. Great Britain have bseii placarded by order of the Government or City Councils, with r. statement of tho case almost universally accepted as correct by the medical profession, in which occur the following parageslt is a mistake to say I hat these doing hard work require stimulants. As a matter of fact, no one requires alcohol as either food or tonic. ... In short, alcoholism is the mcst terrible enemy to personal health, to family liappinees, and' to national prosperity." Tho doctors were careful to explain also in the opening paragraphs of the placard that " Alcoholism is a chronic po : £onitig resulting from the habitual use of alcohol, whether as spirits, wine, or beer, which may never go as far as drunkenne ; s may result, in fact, from moderate drink-, ing. j Surely " Moderate " has seen the names, | state;! over and over again, in that same j column, of world champions in all branches : of ai.'nietics who are total abstainers. Ti,«re are men at t.hc heatl in cricket, football, I wrestling, swimming, tennis, motor racing, running, cycling, walking, shooting, end practically every sport, who are total abstainers. I myself trained a man for running, who was a total abstainer, awl ho was never defeated in scratch races, and rarely in handicaps, and was the champion five-mile runner in Australasia in hU day. Yet still in (aoe of all these unquestioned facts, peisons can still be found wlw sign themselves u Moderate," and quote that hoary foolishness about teetotallers being a "|t>oer crowd." I have beaten any amount ol d'rinkars at all sorb of athletic confess , in my time, and reckon that. I could do it again with others of my own age, if the need arose. All who have studied this question in any way carefully come to the conclusion that tho nation or individual that seems to got along well, though alcohol is drunk, gets on well in spite of the alcohol, and r.ot because of it. j _ The more scientists are testing (his question, the more they are coming to the , conclusion readied by the late Sir Andrew r Clark, physician to Queen Victoria, who . said— t( Alcohol is a poison—so is st.rych- . nme; so is arsenic; so is opium. It ranks , with those agents. Health is always in s some way injured by it—'benefited by it , never." Tho experience of l'roiessor . David and Lieutenant Shacklcton at the , South l'ola, of Nansen at the North Pole, , of Sven Hedin in the wilds of Asia, of Lord 1 Kobert; in India and Africa, of Kitchener in tho Soudan, and of all tho world, prove this to demonstration.—l am, etc., Abstainer. "CIVIS" AND MR CLEMENT ; _ WRAGGE. , Sir,—Will "Civis" please prove the following: — 1. That the poles of the Earth and poles of the ecliptic never oncc in tho Earth's history coincided, and that tho axis luis always been inclined to the piano of the orbit about two-thirds of a right angle, | little more or less. 2. That Croll's law—which has obtained through vast ages—combined with precession is yet sufficient, to account for all tho marvellous changes the Earth has passed through, including tho existence oi tropical and sub-tropical roiuains near the l'olar circles. 3. That the motion of tho Polos among t!lo so-called "fixed" stars is insufficient to carry them through a com--1 plete revolution in 720,000 years. 4. That Lemuria iifvor existed; and that the translation of the Easter Island script confirming migration and the dictum' of the once genial North Polar regions is a fraud. . 5. That the Maoris and Morioris are not lineal descendants of tho original northern pre-Aryan / root-race. 6. That, spikes 011 houses and elsewhere were never emblematical of orinigal sunworship, and that, they never represented a vertical sun in regions where now the sun cannot be vertical. • 7. That the original creatures whence the human race evolved were more l'cecnt than 18,000,000 years ago. I am a busy man and have 110 time for controversy, but should like to see an intelligent reply to the matters' enumerated.—l am, etc., Clement L. Wragge. Duneum, July 18. Dr WATT'S QUOTATIONS. Sin,-I have not Saturday's Daily Times to hand, but if my memory serves me r, 'p 11n 50mc0 " 0 ' writing under the name Ol Censor Cen&oris." drew attention in that issue to an inaccurate ,Scih>tural quotation of Dr Watt's. To "my mind, ' Censor Censons did not go far enough, ■and he might well have questioned Dr Uatts assertion that Jehu parsed our of history with the remark, "Get thee hehind me. Had Dr Watt continued bis researches into tho next chapter ho would have found that Jehu capped whnt must have been a somewhat criminal career •even for those days, by writing letters - 1 ai ». etc '. ISSACIIAH. Sir,—l had not inteuded troubling you again, but, m justice to myself, I ask for j one last, worn. I vise, as Professor White \vtuud have it on thai unhappy Saturday I two weeks ago, " ro a point of explanation, I 1 not to a point of order." I am not | angry with "Censor Censoris," I am j simply grieved. His letter bears out what i a moaical man., writing* in vour paper ; vcconily, bad said :iDout«tl:c dilfidenco sen- • ivci men fc-sl in entering public contro\orsv when they liavo " careers carping ! oiul snapping a t their" heels." No i douoi. ao I grow older I will also become j tlneor-skinnod. Censor Censoris" makes tho scatciQcnt that my knowledge, or want

if it, of Scriptural subjects is the result | of secular education. I will have no red j i herring drawn across tho trail. I was I educated in the o!d liiblc-iii-school days— 11 I aJii ashamed lo say how many years ' ' ago,—when every morning the school work was begun with the reading of a chapter i of Holy Writ. Bible-teaching in any i amount docs not always produce Bible . knowledge. Tom Sawyer gained the prize for his knowledge of Scripture in the ■ teeth of great competition, and yet, . when the Senator demanded of him who were the two disciples that Jesus loved, had no better reply than "David and i Gcliali." '• Another point: Our superior friend c makes the statement that Hamlet was full i of quotations. I was not aware of it. i But if lie were-you will observe Ihe " were,"—if it did no more good for him ] than your reverend correspondent's soukage in Scripturo, he was simply filling hi; belly with the east wind. If « man have all knowledge of ■ Scripture or anything else, and have not charity, he is simply sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. You will note the " reverend." I may bo no finger-print expert, but I can detect a cloven hoof with the rest of them. Now, as regards my blunder, if blunder it can be called. I altered the lest on purpose. It meant, if I had put it in as it stood, "dealing lightly wilh a woman's name." " Cherche?. la femme." Jezebel is dead and gone to her account, but dees '■ Censor Censoris" think it gentlemanly—let- alone Christian—to speak of any woman, as old and a termagant? He would not dare to make his statements in the open and stand for Parliament in " God's own country." Her faults may have been many and great, but 1 believe, in spite of all, "she paid for what she ocht and what she bcclit, and was a better man than ever stood on his shanks." Why is it so many of your correspondents, religious and otherwise—in the latter class I include with sorrow Dr Hunter,—must write with their pens dipped in gall? 'If there were only just a little more love and a little less bitternes?, what a happy world it might be 1 Your reverend and superior friend dignifies the person who interviewed Jehu with a capital letter to his name. He speaks of him as a Messenger. He should verify his references. I am afraid he is confusing this incident with the memorable experience of the prophet when the angel stopped him on the way and his ass spoke. I am told that in knowledge of Bible' lore I am "floundering" in unknown country. Many a better man than myself has floundered in boggy country. "Ccnsoi Censoris" ha,s the grace to.confees my letter has grit. It gives hope of him. lie bus had an imperial lesson, it may ninko him an empire yet.—l am, etc. Dunedin, July 17. * Jas. Watt. "'