PASSING NOTES.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 178, 30 December 1892, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

[By

NEMESIS.]

The Christmas season has come and gone and now we are on the verge of a new year. Looking round duriug the holidays I have been surprised to see the number of drunken men about, and 1 feel disposed to look with more favour upon our teetotal friends than I have hitherto done. When we hear a man on the temperance platform tell us of children begging publicans not to serve their fathers with drink, of wives going to hotels for their drunken husbands, and of respectable (?) men being- carried or dragged home when turned out of the pubs, wo are apt to call him a fanatic. But it is at such a time as this when the evils of the liquor traffic become so plainly evident that there is no denying the truth of such statements. Yet there are some who will excuse a man because it is Christmas time. Yes, Christmas is a season for rejoicing and good fellowship truly, but because of this men should be more sober and less selfish ; while he spends his time and money in drinking and making merry at the bar he causes his wife anol family whom he should specially seek to make happy and glad at such a season, much wretchedness, and the very drunkenness of a man is a proof of his extreme selfishness. Some may wonder what has caused me to write in this strain so X will at once inform them that it is nothing but what has been going on since I last wrote. During the last week some g-ood people whom I have held in respect parted with their respectability for a time at least. I have heard of a Wairoa child pleading, with tears in her eyes, that her father might not be supplied with drink; I have known wives going to a Wairoa hotel this week to induce their husbands to leave the drink, having to depart, leaving their husbands in the bonds of liquor, and returning again later oil to save their closest and dearest relatives from their own madness. Devoted, faithful wives, clinging still to their own though they have become dangerpus beings, avoided by others, In the same

week some of our tradesmen have had to be carried or dragged home in a helpless condition and even the lock-up has had its inmate. And I have also seen a group of young men making their way home late at home in a stupid muddled state of mind. All this, and a great deal more of which I have not seen or heard anything, in one short week. XVho will say that I have no need to talk ?

I hope, Mr Editor, it will not bo thought that I am preaching temperance or running down our publicans, for I am doing neither; I have only stated a few things that have taken place. I will leave it to each reader to draw what conclusion he likes from the facts. • Some will say “ Curse the liquor,” others “ What fools men are ! ” and perhaps neither will be far wrong. The Review of Reviews reproduces a sketch from the Melbourne Punch to show what a hold horse racing has got upon the people of Australia. The cartoon depicts “ Australia ” as a man on all fours going- the round of the course, ridden by the “ Racing Mania” in form of ahorse in jockey attire. The spectators are horses, very knowing looking with eye-glasses on noses and pencils behind the ear. A placard in the background says “ To Let, Melbourne,” whilst a nearer one announces the annual meeting of a “ Society for the improvement of the breed of men.” This the artist says is “ the way it will end.” Horse-racing is upheld because it improves the breed of horses, and this probably it does. Yery few however will find on a race course, on a race day, anything that will tend to elevate or improve the mass of human beings who gather round, although much of an opposite kind is evident on every course, so the tendency of horse-racing is really in the direction pour • trayed by the sketch. And although on last Cup day in Melbourne the attendance is said to have reached something like 70,000 vet we think the placard “ To Lot, Melbourne” suggests the truth rather than the opposite tendency of horse-racing in reference to the material prosperity of a place. It has been calculated that no less a sum than £2,000,000 sterling changed hands over the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups and when the numerous sweeps are taken into consideration I don’t think the amount has been much overstated. The greatest trades of the young Australian nation are undoubtedly liquor and gambling, in both of which a great deal is continually spent for little or no return. Our Wairoa people are, I fancy, pretty deep in both these trades and neither of them will add anything to the peace and prosperity of the district.

I saw it stated recently that the Auckland Education Board were paying a rent of £l5O per year for their offices in the Victoria Arcade and it struck me that a great saving might be made here. They have money and could no doubt get a suitable site either on Government land or on some of their own school allotments, so why do they not build themselves a modest suit of offices and save the annual payment of a sum for rent sufficient to pay the salary of a teacher of a good country school. They may have good reasons for not adopting my advice so I will simply make the suggestion.