The Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1895. To-Day.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5278, 7 June 1895, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1895. To-Day.

Opium haa ita uses as well as its abuses, a fßct that is sometimes lest sight of in aorimonious discussions with regard to the duties and responsibilities of the Imperial Government. It is undoubtedly made extensive use of in China, and to a lessor extent in India, as a means of produoing a sort of intoxication ; but on the other hand, the suffering humanity of the world is enormously indebted to it, in one form or other, for the alleviation of pain ; and in the opinion of men specially qualified to judge in so important a matter, the good immeasurably outweighs the evil. For a long time the subject has been more or less in evidence in the Imperial Parliament, and a Boyal Commission was appointed to prepare a report. It will be obvious that this involved an immense amount of labour, but according to latest mail advices the report had been completed, and would shortly be laid on the table of both Houses. We find, from a synopsis obtained by one of the medical journals, the commissioners state that the abuse of opium as a drug and for smoking purposes is much less in extent than has been stated by some, and that the people of India do not make such an intemperate use of the narcotic as the Europeans, even in India, may be fairly charged with in the matter of alcoholic stimulants.

This is satisfactory so far as it goes, and it seems that the exportation of opium to China by no means bears that proportion to the consumption of. the drug within the Celestial Empire that has commonly been supposed. India, the report states, only sends to China about one-fifth of what that country useß, the remaining four-fif the being partly home-grown, and partly imported from Persia and other countries. Passing on to consider more in detail the non-medicinal use of the drug, the Commissioners state that the nse of opium for plooirarnWe purposes -appearo bo to merge into its medicinal use for the mitigation of suffering and the prevention of disease that it wonld be extremely difficult—indeed, impossible — to interfere with the one purpose without inflicting great hardships on thoße who use it only for the other, and who find in it their one resource in the various ailments which are so common in damp and malarioua districts. The amount of painful, wasting disease whioh is met with in India in which opium alone gives any relief makeß it extremely difficult, ahd in the opinion of many most impolitic, to interpose any obstacle to the easy acquisition by the people of . so important a household medicament.

What, then, becomes of the popular idea with regard to the vicious nse of opium by, the people of India? The report of the commissioners declares that the habit, or vice, is indulged in by comparatively few, and that these are for the most part to be found in the towns. A large amount of the evidence collected tended to show that the apparent evil effects of the sensuous indulgence were not so much due to the habit itself, as to the surroundings amid which it was practised, and to the oharacter of the people who indulged in it. It was olear, the commissioners concluded, that the frequenters of the opium dens included a number of idle, vicious and dissipated persons; and, further, that the habit of opium smoking was often resorted to by victims of pulmonary diseases for the relief of their suffering. The close systematic investigation made it obvious to the Commissioners, as it seems to have been to others who have had opportunities for carefully studying the matter, that the diseases known to be prevalent among opium smokers are by no means alwayß due to tbe habit, Such, then, is a brief outline of the Opium Commission's report}; and apart from the interest it presents in itself, our readers may therefrom be enabled to appreciate more closely any decisions that may be arrived at by the Imperial Parliament.

Probably there are BOine amongafc our readers to whom the name of Jane Cakebread is familiar. The name is an uncommon one, and ita owner is one of the moat famous women in London ; for she has made no fewer than two hundred and Beventy-five appearances in the Police Courts on the charge of drunkenness. Every time that this woman appears she is a Bource of intense amusement for court frequenters ; bnt she is also a reproach to the lawgivers, inasmuch as Bhe is an example of the utter futility of the system of dealing with habitual drunkards. On the occasion of her laßt appearance, the Magistrate remarked that her case was a public scandal. So it is, and co are hundreds of other cases of a similar nature. Jane Cakebread is just as much a lunatic as scores of those mentally deranged people who are shut up in asylums and subjected to a long course of special treatment; but in her oase It is the old Btory, repeated with a monotony that is positively painful — three months in gaol, and then another drinkingfronzy,another arrest, andanother judicial farce. A London contemporary pertinently asks, of what use is suoh a sentence ? It will do the wretched woman no good, and it will only make her a burden upon the ratea. When Bhe comes out Again her first business in life will be tp get drunk again. Then once more the Court will iaugh, the reporters make witty roraarkß, tho name of Jane Cakebread will appear in every paper from John o'Groat's house to Land's End, and Bhe will go to prison for her two hundred

and seventy-sixth time, and ao on until she sinks into a pauper's grave.

The requirement emphasised by "examples " of this sort is the urgent need of some sort of Home for inebriates. Ultra prohibitionists will, o? course, exclaim, " Sweep away the drink traffic, exterminate it root and branch, and there will be no need for Homes for Inebriates, because there will be no drunkards." Bub the millennium is not yet, and meanwhile there is pressing need for reform in the pro* cedare with regard to habitual drunkards. As it is, the State has to take charge of them at irregular intervals, lodge them and feed them, and employ a medical man to look after them ; and the public purse would scarcely Buffer in the long run by an expenditure based upon a plan that would at least afford so-Qe hope of permanent cure. Some time ago it was forcibly pointed out that dealing with dipsomaniacs in a specially appointed asylum need not neceesarily be more costly than maintaining them in an ordinary prison, whilst suoh a procedure would have tbe merit of common sense, and would be infinitely more to the orodit of a professedly Christian country.