LIQUOR AND YOUNG PEOPLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19201, 18 June 1924, Page 8

LIQUOR AND YOUNG PEOPLE.

TO THE EDITOIi. Sir, —The publication in today's issue of the Daily Tunes of the report of the adjourned annual meeting of the Dunedin Licensing Committee and the granting ot licenses, refers one back to the statement of the chairman of the committee, Mr J. K. Bartholomew, S.M., ae made at the previous sitting, and reported in your issue of June 3. The chairman on that day stated the committee’s resolution, which showed “that the members regret exceedingly that the amount of drinking taking place among young people is on the increase, ' and “that the committee requested the authorities very drastically to enforce the provisions for protection of the young people under 21 winch were provided in the Licensing Act.” Mr Bartholomew also stressed the opinion of the committee that matters were, not is satisfactory aa the police report might indicate, ■ since among other thing “a great deal of drinking was done after hours m reserves and other places from bottles. The frequency of this raised the suspicion that all was not as well as it should be. . . . Just how far this increased carrying about of liquor in bottles was responsible for me increased drinking among young people it is not possible to estimate exactly, but there ia definite evidence of a decided connection between the two, matters. We have had brought under our notice a happening of a day or two ago,-the lull details of which we are able to furnish, about a boy, the son of the licensee if Ji prominent hotel, who had taken— surreptitiously, we assume. —a bottle of whisky 10m his father’s promises, and, having been .n the habit of sharing soft drinks with hie schoolboy friends, proceeded to divide up the ardent spirits contained in his whisky bottle. One boy. who received his share, and who was a stranger previously to poison in this form, escaped narrowly from death. Bad it not been that prompt and skilful medical attention was called to his aid and a stomach pump applied, the boy’s life could not have been saved. Indeed, wo are told that had not the pump started blood-flow, the eajo would have ended fatally. His escape from death has not prevented, however, very serems results which may impair the health.' of this lad for a considerable time to come. We are informed that he is still far from well, and the attendance upon him of an experienced muse ia necessary. Such ’’a happening as this along with other flagrant happenings shows that the. distribution of so dangerous a poison must call for the very strictest measures, and one froejs so far as to affirm seriously that its. distribution does not admit of control at all if the 'lives of our young people are to be effectively safeguarded.—l am, etc., R. D. Polson. North-East Valley, June 17.