THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3840, 24 June 1891, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Published by tie courtesy pfthe Editor of WairarapaDaihj under the auspices of the 'New Zealand Alliance for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, Masterton Auxilhrii.

When ratepayers deiriand the entire extinction of all places for the sale of liquors ilieir prayer slwuld be granted. — Cliarles Bitxton, Brewer.

[Cotmnunications tor this column must be addressed to "The Prohibitionist,' care of Editor of Wairarapa Daiia.] The Licensed Victuallers of New Zealand are holding a conference in Wellington.- They became alarmed it the progress of prohibition, and agreed some time ago to form themselves into a Political Society. During the last Parliamentary election here and there throughout the colony the platform of King Bung was disclosed, and candidates were invited to step on to it. There are not a few champions of the drink traffic m the House of Representatives. In the eyes of these gentlemen publichouse property is especially sacred—in fact the only property that is sacred. The alarm of the publicans has turned now into a kind of panic; and they have without doubt met in Wellington to see what they can do through their Parliamentary representatives to crush the expressed will of the people for prohibition, or at least to bluut the edge of the prohibition sword. The Licensed Victuallers know that in 1889 the House of Representatives by a majority of 36 to 26 passed the following resolution: "Whereas the enormous direct expenditure on intoxicating liquors in this colony—amounting annually to more than two. millions sterling—contributes largely to the existing depression, adds materially to crime and poverty, and reduces the capital available for reproductive industries ; and whereas the people under the existing law are powerless to remove the principal cause of these evils, it is, in the opinion of this House, imperative that the Government should, without delay, introduce a Bill giving power to the people, by direct vote at the ballot box, periodically taken, to prohibit the sale of such liquors within the district in which they reside." They remember that Sir Harry Atkinson's Government accepted this resolution and brought in a Bill in 1890 to give effect to it, but owing to pressure of other business it did not reach the second reading. They see tint prohibition in the form of local option will come, but they will scheme, and'plan, and pull the wires that they may get a little Bill passed through the House to grant compensation in the event of prohibition.

During the recent Licensing Election cbntestrthe Prohibition position was denounced as "puritanic," and therefore to be abhorred by the citizens. In the eyes of this doughty, but pomewhat scurrilous champion of the drink interest, a " puritan " is a sort of political, criminal, or social despot. It is none of our business in this column to defend the Puritans, but we may in passing, point to the fact that an impartial witness like Mr Green, the Historian, eulogises the Puritans for the real "liberty, equality, and fraternity," that they introduced into the sixteenth century in England. The Prohibition movement, however, isone of the least sectarian social reforms in the world. Within the British. Dominions. Christians, Mahomedans, and Hindoos, unite on this platform and labour for the prohibition of the liquor traffic curse. It is a matter of history that one of the first English politicians who demanded prohibition was no "puritan," but a gay, fashionable man of the world, Lord Chesterfield was the man, Mr Lecky, the last and best of the eighteenth century historians, says that in 1724 a new and terrible epoch began in English history. Gin drinking began and spread like an epidemic «■ These giant curses, the gin palace and the dram shop, spread on all sides. Distilled alcohol took the place of comparatively harmless wines. "Drunk for a penny; dead drunk for twopenceand straw given in," was the way the drink sellers pushed their wares. With the enormous development of the liquor traffic there was corresponding enormous increase in poverty, robbery, and murder. It was in these circumstances that Lord Chesterfield declared in his place in the House of Lords for tLe absolute prohibition- of the alcohol scourge. He saw before his eyes a traffic that was making men paupers, crimiuals aud murderers, and io him the idea was monstrous of drawing revenue from it, and thus protecting it by law. "Vice, my lords," he said "is not properly to be taxed but to be suppressed. Luxury, my lords, may very properly be taxed. But the use of those which are simply hurjtul is to be prohibited,'*

Modern Prohibitionists who are denounced as " puritans" are charged with using extreme and extravagant language with regard to the drink evil. We live in an age in which numbers are hardened by familiarity with the drink evils. But in Chesterfield's day the social conscience was not thus scared and tins gay man of the world used language of denuniGatiou that in our day would be characterised as the speech of a wild fanatic. Addressing the House of Lord 3 in referenco to the liquor trafficers, he says : " Let us crush these artists in human slaughter which have reconciled their countrymen to sickness and to ruin, and spread over the pitfalls of debauchery such ftaits as cannot be resisted. When I consider, my lords, the tendency oi this Bill, I find it calculated only for the propagation of disease, the suppression of industry, and the destruction of mankind. For this purpose, my lords, what could have been invented more effecacious than shops at which poison may be vended, poison so prepared as to please the palate, while it wastes the strengtli' and kills only by intoxication." But Chesterfield's pleadings were in vain. The coffers of King George II were empty, and the revenue from the new Gin Act would ijll jibem ; for revenue ponsiderations these English politicals were willing to allow " artists in human slaughter" to pursue their avocation in every city, town, ani? hamlet in England. These " artists" began their work and drunkenness from that day bepanje the giant vice of England Ip our folly we have planted thjs Elpar tree in our midst in this fair colony. The New Zealand Alliance in crying " destroy it," is but repeat ing the demand of Chesterfield.

The alcohol scourge is assuming a new form. In the Queen of April 11th an account is given of the horrible effects of ether drinking in one of the fairest districts in Ireland where, iu the past, order and intelligence 'reigned. In the districts abou - Droperstown and Cijokstown abouj

10,000 out ofa population of 20,000 are slaves of a new form of intoxication. It is well known that ether is used in place of chloroform to produce insensibility to pain in surgical oparations. It has then been a blessing to suffering humanity. But it is now being turned into a potent curse. It is being manufactured in a cheap way from methylated alcohol, which, as it is used largely for manufacturing purposes, escape's duty. The special correspondent of the London Times | reports that merchants, farmers, men, women and children practice this degrading drunkenness. In the smallest cabin, in the fields, in the markets and fairs, innane men and women may bs seen who have become •wrecks, helpless to themselves, loathsome to others, from the continued use of ether. The story of this vice reads more like an account of the disgusting orgie of a race of savages. The Queen says : — ,; Insanity is largely on i the increase ia the districts, and men I when not actually insane, the miserable victims are impressed by fancies and trains of thought which have no rational existence. The vice is degrading, morally, socially, physically, and intellectually, so that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of the country that it be put a stop to."