A SOBER COMMUNITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15350, 13 January 1912, Page 9

A SOBER COMMUNITY.

The remarkably few cases of ilrunkonnoss —less than a (ten—that figured in the local Police Court clmrge-sheets during the Christmas and Now Year holidays which have just come to an end supply a satisfactory proof of tlio general sohrictv of the public in this part of tlio Dominion. Tho past year brought s'ucli outward prosperity to the community as a whole— however much thin may lie attributed to the circulation of borrowed money—and the city was so full of visitors, who, it may he presumed, had SO nie loose silver to scatter about during the holidays, that indications of riotous living might have lircn exacted to be abundant if people were incapable of self-restraint, instead of being conspicuous by their alwcnce. In general terms it may lie said that with all the means to do ill deeds no ill deeds were done. And though colonial (statistics occasionally give twine colour to the assertion that the evil of drunkenness is spreading and that the ranks of inebriates are being steadily recruited, there is no sound reason for supposing that the nation is not Incoming distinctly mure temperate. A lllue Hook which was recently issued in Ureal liritain contained information relative to the use and abuse of intoxicating liquors in the United Kingdom. The ollicial returns show that for ISO 9 there were S£o moderate drinkers per 1000; what are described ns " fair drinkers" numbered from 17.5 to 18 per cent., and habitual drunkards from 2 to 2.5 per cent. Of tlio lafit-monlionwl class the inspector milk'!' Hit) liwbiiatos Act surmises thai from 97 to 98 per cent, dio in prisons, workhouses, or asylums, or remain drunkards to the last. It may fairly ho assumed that if in tlreat Hritnin there are 980 moderate men in the 1000 who need no repentance the pcrcontoge is much greater here. Tho colonial community is so much more prosperous ami is so fortunate in being without a submerged tenth and without slum-bred iucapables Hint «re driven to drink lo drown the miseries that haunt them from the cradle to the grave, that an unwholesome craving for intoxicants must necessarily Iw less dominant in these favoured IVritish communities south of the line than it is in the more crowded centres in older countries. The temptation lo slide from moderation into habitual abuse must, because of the easier conditions of our life, lie also much less potent.' Tliosa highly favouring' condilions ami the growing conviction that social advancement springs naturally from individual right-doing makes reform by compulsion the more unnecessary, to sav nothing of its futility. "'Hie only froedom that deserves the name," says a well-known writer, ''is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their elToils to obtain it. Rich is the proper guardian of hi* own heallh, whether bodily or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each to live as seems good to thcmseive,s than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest." As for the 2 per cent, who are afflicted with infirmity of purine, magistrates have full power to ileal with thorn under prohibition orders, the effectiveness of which might, we think, Ik- increased, or by dedaring them to be habitual drunkards and sending them to any institution authorised to receive and detain them.