CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11603, 18 August 1899, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

We are not responsible for the opinions expressed by correspondents. The writer's name, as a guarantee of good faith, r.ust be enclosed in the letter "

[ \dvektisemext] FIGURES, FALLACIES, ASD FACTS.

(DEDICATED TO THE TEETOTAL FACTION )

TO THE EDITOR.

Sin, — Mr Isitt, with h 9 budget of dubious sfatistic?, has by hi* recent letter of 20th ultimo, admitted after sober reflection a considerable discount on his late public statements. Hfl now attributes " Zcss than half" of tho lunacy to the effects of liquor." What a sabterfuge of facts ' The latest official statistics for 1899, issued by the Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, give a return of 9 per cent., not 80 per cent, as clearly stated by Mrl-itt as the result of intemperance. I challenge his denial, with the reporters (shorthand notes of his address at Hawera and re- •. corded in ths Hawera Star of July 7th. Mr Isitt is on the horns of a dilemma : either he lies or tha reporter's have been mistaken as to Mr Tsitt's usually voiy clear exposition of fallacies and figures. Not only did he state that 80 per cent, of the lunacy in this colony was attributeble to ■ drink, but that "90 per cent., he might say 95 per cent., of convictions in the gacl.s were caised by intemperance. ' Faithful witnesses can testify to the repetition of such false assertions by Mr Isict at the Monday's meeting at the Theatre Royal. Now, sir, for proof (vide Year "Book, 1899) ; Population December 1897, 729,056 ; chronic alcohol sti, 24 ; delirium trtmens, 6 ; total, 30 deaths. Deaths from intemperance for 10 years, from 9 01 per 10,000 persons in 1887 to 6G9 in 1895, and GB2 per 1000 ia 1890. Convicted persons received in gaol in 1896, total 1936, giving a proportion of 27 11 per 10.003 of the population. requests on persons in 1896. B.'o, 9 of this number were classified as intemperance. Arrests for drunkenness in proportion to population for 1896:— New South Wales, 17 50; Victoria, 13 67; New Zealand, 8.16 per thousaud, less then 1 per cent ">f the population. The Inspector of Asylums, in the Year Book for 1896, specifies the causes of insanity ia 466 cises admitted during that year — '47 case s were attributed to drink The proportion of cases due to drink was 10 per cent. The latest record for a year is 1898, only 9 per cent oj 613 patients admitted, not 80 per cent as falsely stated by the fanaticil faddists, the only virtue for the time being of some of whom is an enforced sobriety. Their retrospective records brand many of them as vicious and intemperate. Dr Pmith, of Clutha, publicly stated ibat Ciutba is exceptionally immoral. Mr Isitt, "in hi 3 own diseassd imagination," fakes exepption to this well proved and freely expressed fact, and suggests layii g the matter "before th\t august boiy, the Olutha Presbyiery." "A oommitee of morah." What a tribunal, a dovecot of immaculate cleric? in Eolemn and spiritual conclave investigating the morals of the Cluthi people at the suggestion of Isitt the Little ? The testimony of a few truthful and respectable persons (include ing Dr Smith) would carry greater influence for truth, and in corroborating Mr -Hawkins' (S.M.) published opinions or Dr. Smith's profeFsional experience that Clatba is pregnant with immorality. Mr Isitt did not find it convenient, when quoting Constable Pardy, to give Mr Hawkins' opinion when ( hillenged by a gentleman ia the hall. Mr R. S. Hawkins, tha Clutha S.M., wrote to the Minister of Justice thus ~" The fact that a majority of t he people have desired, and may still desire, the application of the law, does not appeal to the common sense of the minority as a justification for the restraint. . . . . lam sure that after the closing of licensed houses the quantity of alcoholic liquors going in demi-johns and casks into private houses was very considerable I am informed from credible sources that liquor ia to be found generally, and is offered to visitors, when before 1893 no liquor was kept. ... It appears to me that the advocates of Prohibition care nothing so long as they can keep the public-house closed what injury ii done to the respect for law' or to the cause of morality or justice, that their entire mora'ity is summed up in tha words " total abstinence." I do not so regard it, and I say that while attempting (for they only attempt) to cast out one devil they ara bringmg in several others far worse than that one. . . . There is disvmion and ill^wi I, and mutual dis* trust, and even haired springing up in these little townships and growing out of this source. . . . For I hold that the continuance of the present state of thing* is unendurable and an evil of a character most mischievous to the mora'i y of the population of the district (Ciutba y' Surely such official testimony is sufficient to satisfy even a f inalical teetotaller that 'he penistent slanderous attacks by Mr liitc, on the veracity of Dr. Sn&inh and Mr G. Thomson, is without foundation, and therefore classes Prohibition lee* turers with the prophets of old, who were virtual liars. Jer. vi , 13. Was Mr Isitt the oiiginal recipient of the infamous Okato telegram, and who, after four years of useful service, gave it to one of the delegates as a further revelation to the innocents of Okato? The postal authorities destroy original copy of telegrams after six months, but this waif, this trustworthy relic of the pis four years, evidently bears a charmed life. The meeting held at Okato was presided over by the Rev. Mr Mason, a convert to the modern terrorism (Heaven save him from his new friends). On the platform were seated the Revs. Olphert and Serpell, from New Plymouth, tho Bey. Mr White, Okato, and Mr Harkness; below Eac the truthful Mr Gooiacre; during the evening a telegram was handed to the chairman by one of the rev. gentlemen on the platform Mr Mason innocently read aloud the contents as just received, viz., t( 83 per cent, of convictions in gaol through drink." — Signed, Garvey,- Wellington. This official is a teetotaller, no doubt pious, and a Prohibitionist of tropical growth. In reply to a question, What was to be .done with sly grog-sellers ? Mr 8. B. White, of New Plymouth, roso, and with stentorian voice moved a reso lution : That for the first offence £100 fine, for the second, to be sent to gaol; for the third — well, Mr White, in a pio33 anrJ charitabla- mood, no doubt would suggest hanging, without benefit of e'ergy. I a,vnit with anxiety Mr Isitt's " Further Djvelopmentp." Mr Mbeoo, the apostate- from anti-Prohibition co the new a=cetbicism,i-i growing as rabid and uncharitable as his new brotherhood. At the Okato meeting he siid, '• I am not going to condemn all publicans, but if 99 public-houses were conducted on so-called proper lines, and one was a little hell, I should cay thut the lot up." A tourist recently confirmed what every reasonable person knowß to be true. He travelled wi'h his bike from Wellington to New Plymouth in short stages, and was surprised to noto the dissension and wordy warfaro on the question of licensing aud intemporanco. Why, eaidhe, "I was a month en route stopping at most of the places, and never siw a man even slightly elevated." Is it not a pernicious libel on the sobriety of our citizens that they should be subjected to atrocious defamation, to be branded as drunkards by tho irresponsible hirelings engaged by the hobby horse siders of Teetotaldom ? Statistics of drunkenness relate to a clttba of people whom no legislation and no restiictions will euro— happily wo are freo from the h'.bitual drunkard, and require no restrictive legislation to forge fetters on cur liberty and freedom, as to what ia beneficial for tho individual economy. The New Plymouth gaol disliiot had the cnormom number of eight convictions for drunkenness from January 7th to July 31st — seven months of the present year. With such proofs of absolute sobriety, where b the necessity of disturbing our fioiiil economy, of tacrificing vested interests, ruining thousands in a business which has been, down the centuriop, of immense convenience to mankind and a beacon to our

civilisation. As local option is conceived 1 on the principle of confiscation and tyranny, and there is no greater tryant on God's earth than the modern radical teetotaller, it behoves - every liberal- minded man and woman to jMn issue ia supporting, at the ballot box, the existing status of the licensing question, by crossing out the two bottom lines :— I vote that the number of licenses existing ia the district continue. I vote that the number of licenses existing in the district bo reduced. I vote that no license be granted in the dist'icfc. The trade should organise seriously in view of thd coming campaign, and should consider their Eubsuriptious in defence of , thtir properties as nothing more nor less thin a Burglary Assurance Fund. In the coming struggle let lha temperate liberals inscribe on thtir banner, "Destroy it not for a blessing it i<." Public Convenience, Individual Liberty, No Confiscation, Boycott Tyrants.— l ara, &c, ANTJ-SLAVEhY. August 3rd, 1899