TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3885, 28 August 1928, Page 75

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council. A national education campaign has been begun by the Zwoki Reform Foundation, Japan. _ Temperance lectures and films are being -used to rouse the people to the dangers of alcohol. One film is called “ Who Goes to the Inferno? ’’ The Mortality Returns of the Abstainers’ and General Insurance Company. confirm those of other offices in showing advantage to the abstainer. In 42 years’ experience the ratio of actual to expected deaths (war excluded) is 43.7 in the abstainers’ section. TOTAL ABSTINENCE. THE FORMATION OF CURRENT OPINION. 1. As a result of the distribution of the Medical Research Council’s “ Alcohol: Its Action on the Human Organism ’’ to third year students in the medical schools, one student who received a copy, read it and wrote home to his mother, an ardent temperance worker, saying: “ I had no idea till I read this scientific document b-w much justification you had for your _ position.” 2. A girl attending a Yorkshire secondary school came from a strong total abstinence home and was a good deal “ ragged ” by her companions. After a lecture by Dr Weeks in that school some of the senior girls came to her and, practically apologising foi - their treatment, suggested the formation of a “ Y ” branch of the B.W.T.A.U. in the school. 3. At a shooting party on a certain peer’s ground the conversation fell on the influence of alcohol on shooting. Some suggested that the shooting was better “ after lunch,” whereupon a younger son controverted that idea, saying it was based on a subjective illusion, one of the specific effects of alcohol. He then proceeded to give as his authority a lecture he had heard delivered in one of the great public schools.

4. A conversation a publisher and a printer’s traveller recently threw an interesting side-light on the force of public opinion. The traveller said he had been calling upon a brewery manager in a northern county and suggested an order for more envelopes. “ Look here,” said the manager, “ that’s what’s left of the last lot we had from you—lo,ooo of them! We cannot use them because we got you to print the name of the brewery on them, and our customers don’t like it!” “And,” said the traveller to the temperance publisher, “ I’m gradually coming over to your side.” The preceding illustrations show quite clearly that to create an intelligent opinion in students and scholars is the most productive work. An interesting confirmation of this is to be found in the opinion expressed by Mr Arthlr Rowstree, headmaster of Bootham School, at the Friends’ yearly meeting, in supporting the Temperance Union report, when he said he wished we could approach those under the age of 18 years first- of all. and then those between the ages of 18 and. 30, which latter is just what we are doing. Referring to the Board Of Education syllabus, Mr Rowntree said he had been reminded that in getting schools to teach this subject we were really going back to what was being done 400 years ago. There had been a great educational reformer, a friend of Erasmus, called Vives, who had written dialogues for boys and girls in Latin for use in schools. They had not all the scientific thought that we had to-day, but a very good knowledge of mental and moral laws, and he brought in some of these subjects in his different dialogues, one being on drunkenness, in which the following conversation on the subject took place between two friends:— Abstemious: So long as thou hast the wine in the beaker it is in thy power; when thou hast it in thy body thou art in the power of the wine. Then you are held and do not hold. When you drink you treat wine as you like. When you have drunk, it will treat you as it likes. Asotos: What, then, are we never to drink?

Abstemious: When fools avoid their vices they run into the opposite extremes. We must indeed quench thirst, but not be “ drinkers." Nature on this point teaches beasts alone. The same nature will not teach man because he possesses reason.. You eat when you are hungry, you drink when you are thirsty. Hanger and thirst will warn you how much, when and to what extent, we must eat and drink. Asotos: What if I am always thirsty, and if I cannot assuage my thirst except by getting drunk? Abstemious: Then drink what cannot possibly make you drunk. A few days previously he had talked to two young men entering upon the threshold of from 18 to 30. He asked one why he was an abstainer, and he replied without hesitation that it was because scientific fact taught that alcohol even in small doses reduced the power of control, and he wanted to be as efficient as he could for the service of the world. The other young man he asked why he was not an abstainer, and was told because he had seen wine at home and had never seen any harm resulting from it; also that it seemed a very friendly thing and a help to sociableness. We all know those two types, which illustrate the difference made by sound education on the subject. THE TIDE IS SURE TO WIN. On the far reef the breakers recoil in shattered foam, But still the sea behind them urges its forces home; Its song of triumph surges o’er all the thunderous din, Tlie wave may break in failure, but the tide is sure to win. The reef is strong and cruel; upon its jagged wall One wave—a score, a hundred—broken and beaten fall; Yet in defeat they conquer, the sea comes crowding in, The wave may break in failure, but the tide is sure to win. Oh! mighty sea, thy message in changing spray is cast, Within God’s plan of progress it matters not at last . -- How wide the shores how strong the reef of sin. The wave may break in failure, but the tide is sure to win!