The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18. THE LIQUOR WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 242, 18 February 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18. THE LIQUOR WAR.

New Zealand is about to begin, according to the no-license campaigners, a liquor war which promised to be the most notable in the history of suck fights. It will be the more notable because the people will have an opportunity of absolutely killing the sale or manufacture of alcohol. It will be made possible for the sovereign people to destroy at one blow a trade that luis existed since the dawn of history. To effect the purpose earnestly aimed at by the Prohibition' Party, it is necessary that this party should have the help of the people who consume the greater quantity of the total amount of liquor sold in New Zealand. Total abstainers from alcohol, lone-handed, would be unable to carry no-license in any electorate in this country, and so to effect ''dryness" either in an electorate or in the Dominion they must depend on the aid of the people who like liquor but who must be content to-give it up in order that those who take too much of it will cease to injure themselves. To obtain the necessary majority effecting Dominion prohibition would be a triumph in national selfabnegation. It would settle at once the question as to whether a man was "his brother's keeper"; it would demonstrate that selfishness had given place to a general .altruism; and that "Othcrdom" had been, transplanted. Campaigning in the interests of the liquor trade or against it may mould a new public opinion. That it can affect public appetite is a point much open to doubt. Necessarily, if the earnest and eminent workers in the nolicense cause during the period which is to elapse before the general election are as reformative.as .they hope, there will be a diminution in the consumption of alcohol a 9 soon as the campaign is well under way, and careful examination of the figures in this regard will be the best indication of the coming success or failure of the conflicting parties. On the one hand, the No-Licen.se Party will fight for its annihilation, a fight in which they must be supported by people who desire sectional prohibition, but who have not yet sliown any desire for a '■' no-liquor" decision. There are ardent no-license advocates who do not believe that the "noliquor" chance will estrange the moderates, "but the fact is that prohibition can only come with the help of moderates, and that they must desist from the use of alcohol out of sheer loving-kindness for the minority of those who over-in-dulge. A regrettable feature of the liquor battle in Nev Zealand is that outsiders' sometimes sneer at the attempts being made to.clear out ■what no-license advocates believe to be an inexcusable evil at one swoop. The evils of gradual elimination, however, are so patent that, if total prohibition is to come, the attempt to secure it at once is at least an indication of earnestness. The treatment of the "no-liquor" question at the polls will at once settle the position of the moderates who have voted district prohibition. It will give altruists a chance to- demonstrate by example their personal belief in the evils of a drug. The No-License Party, which is, one supposes, now also a "no-liquor" party, is undeterred in its march by sneers, and knowing that Glasgow is one of the best examples of the evil that may be wrought by over-indulgence in alcohol, the remarks of the Glasgow Herald are interesting. Here is an extract: "Evidently the temperance party recognises that only a national self-denying ordinance, made effective by a puritan army of officials, will keep the serpent out of Eden. But we doubt if any nation, no matter how tolerant it may be of grandmotherly legislation, will approve of such a sweeping measure. Those who have willingly accepted restriction will hesitate long before they endorse the total suppression of the liquor traffic. Jt seems to us that New Zealand has already in its legislation got somewhat ahead of public opinion, and if that be true, the total abstinence advocates may be in danger of losing in a determined reaction against their methods some of the ground they have already gained." The "ground that has been gained" is not a national gain, but merely a method of shifting the enemy elsewhere, generally to the financial advantage of some sections of him, and certainly the national appetite for liquor has in no way been affected. If, therefore, a party, even though it cannot kill appetite, is enabled with the use of folk who possess the appetite, to prevent everybody from indulging it. their victory will be historical. It is, of course, just as possible for a man to vote against his stomach as for him to vote against bis conscience, but not so probable. For the majority who "need not a physician" to cheerfully forego any alleged privilege in order to save the minority "who are sick" would be a splendid sample of social loyalty to an ideal.

CURRENT TOPICS CHILDREN'S HEALTH. "I notice that there is a move on to inspect school children and to look after and promote their health," said a farmer to us yesterday. "But the New Zealand authorities," he continued, "should first of all get down to the causes of ill-health. Take the water that the children have to drink at schools in the country. That it is frequently contaminated I can prove from my own observations. The children ol one school situate between New Plymouth and Opunakc have to draw their drinking water from a river near by. Higher up the drainage of cow-sheds and piggeries goes into the river. Imagine the risk these children are running. What is the good of examining them at school when the very water they drink day by day is contaminated? This is a thing to which the Government should give" attention, and early attention at that. Otherwise the consequences may be very serious. How the children have escaped as well as they have so far I cannot understand. Another thing. People are allowed to build pig-styes right close to public thoroughfares. I believe the law lays down that they must not be built closer than 300 feet to a public road. What arc the inspectors doing? Again, enough attention is not paid by many settlers to the surroundings of their habitations. The proximity of pig-styes and other insanitary buildings makes for risk to the health of all concerned, but more particularly to that of the children, who are more susceptible to disease than adults. As I said, a beginning must first be made with the removal of. the causes of the ailments to which school children are subject. The rest will probably right itself."

RENTS. When the State interferes with Private Enterprise and informs it that it must not charge the working man so much rent, the millcnium may be expected. The Labor Conference sitting at Sydney has been discussing the question of high rents in the big city and are going to ask the Government to establish workers' villages. Rents in Sydney are from 12 to 15 per cent, lower than rent in Auckland or Wellington, lower than rents in New Plymouth, and about on a par with Dunedin suburban rents. Wages in Sydney are as high as wages in New Zealand cities, and there is less jerrybuilding. If the Sydney worker is paying too much rent, how much too much is "the New Zealand city worker paying? No one who has even a surface knowledge of human nature can foresee anything but failure for a workers' village scheme. In theory it is sound enough, but in practice—well, ask the workers' wife. In his social life the worker (but especially the worker's wife) is rigidly graded. Any system that makes for uniformity is bad. Mrs. Chips knows she is better than Mrs. I'lier-, an.l why should she be condemned to life in a workers' village when her ambition is to live as near Potts' Point as possible in order to deceive the public into the belief that she is a squatter's wife? Imagine a "Minimum Rent Bill," based, one supposes, on a Government estimate of the interest a landlord should squeeze out of a tenant. Imagine the operation of such an Act in New Zealand, where Government and local bodies' over-valua-tions are one of the reasons for high I rents! A "Maximum Value Bill" might make the way plainer for a "Minimum Rent Bill." '

DOMESTIC HELPS. Everybody is aware of the deplorable scarcity of young women willing to undertake domestic duties under a "missus," and, as a general thing, people look upon a girl who prefers to work in a factory or a laundry as a stubborn person who should be spoken severely to about her conduct. Mr, Bishop, Magistrate at Christchurch, lately remarked that he could not understand why girls who arc able to earn as much as domestic servants (plus food and keep) as they could in a factory should prefer the latter. The fact that all these girls who ought to be domestic servants (according to magistrates and "missuses") are able to obtain factory work is the best proof that the factories need them. If the factories could not obtain them, the factories would shut down. There are not enough girls to "go round." In the selection of a means of earning a living a girl who is not usually solely dependent on herself, naturally takes the freest an/ most attractive job offering. She works by the clock in a factory, lives at home, has freedom out of factory hours, and reaches marriage just as surely as her sister the housemaid, who, despite the notorious fact that she is frequently inefficient, independent, and a trial to her employer, still cannot command even the partial freedom of a factory girl. What this new chair of Domestic Science, at the Otago branch of the New Zealand University is going to do for harried housewives, one cannot foretell, but there is certainly a suggestion in the South that some young women will take the available course of study in order to qualify for domestic service! The housewife who nt present is able to secure the services of a domestic help will generally agree that she is more than adequately paid for her services, and that the total wages (exclusive of broken china and increased gas bills) is considerable. If our young women enter the University in order to become Bachelors of Domestic Science, they will be as far beyond the reach of the'worried women as ever. Does one imagine that B.D.S. would consent to wear a bag apron, sweep floors, wash dishes and cook the plebian potato? If the course of domestic science is for potential "missuses,'' the inference is that there will be a rush of careful men to snatch the matrimonial i pearls, and that cookery, and not Cupid, will rule the heart. The teaching of domestic science as a cure for the lack of servant girls is likely to be as bene- I ficial as a course of castor oil pills would I be to cure a cart wheel of a loose tyre. )

AX INTERNAL FOE. The Kaiser's brother recently made a cryptic utterance, mentioning that Germany had no reason to fear an outside foe, hut that she must watch her internal enemy. The Kaiser's remarkable "divine right" speeches have been among the chief reasons for the increased act£ vity_ of this internal enemy, who is hecoming immensely more powerful every year. There arc millions of Social Democrats in (iermany who arc opposed to the "divine right" theory, but who hate the "mailed fist" and all it stands for. The Social Democrat is really a passive resister, whose strength is iii his quiet influence, his wonderful organisation, and his utter contempt for every measure used to suppress him. The grave words of Prince Henry were addressed to soldiers, for i( i,, to the Kaiser's wonderful army that the Social Democrats are turning their attention. As all fit G'erman youths must enter the armv, the Socialist organisations like to gain the ear of the youth before he becomes a soldier Thousands of recruits, therefore, who have Socialistic inclinations when they' join _ do not <ret rid of them even while serving the Kaiser, and it will be interestm» to «Hi the attitude of these Socialistic soldiers in the days that are to come. .Although under ordiaary fio n-j ditions the Kaiser can control the bodies'

of men, he cannot control their minds — and it is the collective idea (which ultimately results in action) that is a great danger to the Kaisor.