Public Opinion

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 197, 20 August 1929, Page 11

Public Opinion

CLARET CUP “Above All, Let us Not Forget to be Kind.” Sir, —The above clause forms the conclusion of the creed repeated at each of their meetings by that excellent band of public-spirited women, namely the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union. It appears to me that there is, probably unperceived by themselves, a certain amount of casuistry in their deliberations, and that they are inclined to “do evil that good may come.” Else, surely, they would not even in the slightest degree encourage the appalling increase of the drink habit among our young women, by providing at their “feasts of charity”—otherwise dance suppers, such things as the claret cup. I know that as an intoxicating beverage, claret cup is comparatively innocuous; but it is certain that were it not that it possessed a modicum of excitement and exhilaration it would not bo considered so necessary an adjunct to “having a good time.” It is the principle of the thing to which I take exception. It is the ‘‘thin edge of the wedge” which in some cases may lead to thg opening of the door to ruination in promising young lives. This apparent lack of foresight and consideration in guarding the health and morals of our young women is, to my mind, a rather large “fly in the ointment” of the good deeds of the disinterested members of the W.D.F.U., and until any and all forms of intoxicants arg deleted from the supper menu of dances held under whatever patronage, I must feel it a duty to discourage any membgr of my family from attending. I thank you, Sir, for allowing me, in your columns, to speak to the members of the “W.D.,” and incidentally to all women who are concerned in the betterment of conditions in this country, especially for women and children. So often “evil is wrought by want of thought. ” A MOTHER.