TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20866, 5 November 1929, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council. Why are heavy showers like heavy drinkers? Because they usually begin with small drops, ALCOHOL CREATES A CRAVING. Man has no natural appetite for alcohol before he starts to indulge. In fact, the appetite is created by the alcohol itself, and by nothing else. The purest liquors from ale up to rum are made of nothing but alcohol and water and a little colouring. All we have to consider, then, is the question of the_ alcohol, which in itself is simply a poison, but because it diffuses itself so very quickly it has. a very deceptive effect; it gives a person the impression of having done work more quickly and better than usual, when, as a matter of fact, it was just the reverse. The more alcohol one takes, the more one wants. Many drinkers will go without food rather than without their drink of alcohol; the craving for it is so strong once it gets you. AN ENEMY TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH. By Sir Arthur Knewsholme, k.c.b., m.d.. Late Principal Medical Officer to the Local Government Board. Alcohol, although a declining evil, is still one of the four or five chief enemies of the public health. Its position has been steadily undermined, and in this the medical profession have taken an active part. In hospital and private practice alike medical men increasingly refrain from prescribing alcohol, except with the utmost caution, because of its habit-form-ing dangers, and because it is now known that its chief action is narcotic and not stimulant. , It has been clearly proved ‘that even small quantities, e.g., a glass of wine or beer, definitely decrease the accuracy of any work involving skill, though the person thus experimented on is confident that he has done better than usual. It is this self-satisfaction which is a chief danger of alcoholic indulgence; and for chauffeurs and others whose work involves sudden and exact decision total abstinence is the only justifiable action. Alcoholic indulgence leads to neglect of children in a large section of the community, and it is a significant fact that much more is spent year by year on alcohol than on milk. A reduction in our beer bill would enable children to be better fed and better cared for in all respects. What should be done to restrict this great national evil, an evil which promotes crime, vice, disease, and poverty move than any other single factor in our midst? It is useless to say that moral measures Will suffice. The history of drinking is one of continued control for many centuries, such as has been exercised, over no other industry. The only practical question is as to how far should the needed restrictions extend. During the Great War in this country the amount of drink was severely rationed, its alcoholic content was greatly reduced, the hours during which it could be bought or consumed in public houses were reduped and the intervals lengthened, and furthermore, treating became illegal; and the result was seen in a remarkable reduction in the number of deaths from alco-' holism in women and in offences due to drunkenness. Once for all it was demonstrated that a country can be made sober by Act of Parliament. Since the war these restrictions have been reduced, with increase of drunkenness and disease; and we cannot expect rapid improvement unless _ and until the power to limit or eliminate the sale of alcoholic drinks in any _ neighbourhood is accorded to the inhabitants of that district. THOMAS COOK, THE TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE. Thomas Cook, the founder and promoter of world-wide travel service, is known everywhere; but comparatively few people, it is safe to say, know of Thomas Cook’s deep interest in, and his intimate identification with, the antiliquor reform. While still a young man, Thomas Cook became deeply interested in the crusade against alcoholic beverages which Father Mathew, of Ireland, was leading, and which had extended. mlovEngland, where young Cook was employed as a 1 woodturner, at the same time doing_ some work a& a missionary under the Baptist Association. He soon made himself a name os an active and emphatic opponent of intemperance, and was appointed secretary of the South Midland Temperance Association in Market Harborough. His zeal for the cause was so great that it led him, af his own expense, to print and publish pamphlets relating to temperance. He was the founder also of tho_ “ Children’s Temperance Magazine,” which was the first English periodical of the kind.

In June, 1841, Mr Cook walked from Market Harborough to Leicester, a distance of 15 miles, to be present at a large meeting of the friends of temperance, tea be held in the Leicester Amphitheatre. During this long walk, he read of the opening of an extension of the Midland Counties railway. It occurred to him that the new railway might be turned to useful account in furthering the temperance cause. At that time he knew little of railways, having travelled only over tire Leicester and Swannington line from Leicester to Long Lane. An arrangement had been made to bold a large public gathering at Loughborough, ot the members of the temperance society and their friends. Suppose, thought i nomas Cook, the railway company were to consent to run a special from Leicester to Loughborough for the occasion, the success of this meeting would be assured! In a speech he made at Leicester at thn meeting that evening, he asked those who approved the suggestion to hold up their hands The majority responded to his e , determined to approach the officials of the road. When he presented his request to John Fox Bell secr. e * a 5M f , the company, Mr Bell’s reply was I know nothing of you or your society, but you shall have the train.” He also handed Mr Cook a contribution .oward preliminary expenses. J* train for whi ch Mr Cook had bargained carried 570 pasLeicester to Loughborough and back, at Is a head, to attend the temperance rally. The success of this exTW° n r al ? wa ®. an e P°ch in the life of Thomas Cook His name was widely advertised, and other societies applied to him for advice when tW wished to arrange for excursions. He found a new to thereafter B devoted bT/time tt~ kable The notion of running an excursion tram for the convenience of a party who were desirous of making a dOTowtration m favour of temperance was the pv. citing cause of Thomas Cook’s makimr thn simplifications of travel a e himself in orte tt.tfl ter “>

TEMPERANCE WORKS. The Rev. James Barr lIP j. n mg address touching many asncofo ' whole drink proWe£ “aiY wlr? Sd that many people would not go to a tem porance meeting because it V as the s-i Z thing over again, and that they had the “ l f Stal l en , motion that temperance advr^ cates had a very narrow flclvoOn the contrary* lie contended a PP nothing outside their ranee of viJ® Was this question, the aspects of life to which “”Si'S°th<i S hStory , ot ,> A?S I A' ILXt&SS fit Huxley, Shakespeare, Johnson, Burns In references to the scientific he said he made with some temerity before such an audience—he reverted £ tu volume by Sir Victor Horsley* R Sd Dr Mary Sturge, and declared the first chantera of it were worth committing to memory -Hie enormous change from the use of alcohol to that of milk in hospitals was commented, on. Apart from the London hospitals Jt appeared that he had ately discovered from an old book tbn+ m 1840 the RoyAl Infirmary of Edim burgh spent on liquor £2 3s 71d per bednow it was Is lid per bed. With regard to an appeal to the young sections of both sexes, he agreed that must be their foremost appeal mentioning that in the school Board of Glasgow there had been consistent Temperance teaching on the part of the teachers according to the syllabus at least one day in the week for something like 30 years, and scientific instruction for some 50 years. But, while making this appeal to the young in their own sphere, others, according to their view, would also make their appeal in their sphere.