Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1896. PROHIBITION FALLACIES, No. 8.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 8991, 24 October 1896, Page 2

Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1896. PROHIBITION FALLACIES, No. 8.

" That a Temperate Use of Alcohol Causes Disease*" (Contbibuted). Chboxio alooholißm must be recognised in its dual aspect as a vice and as a disease, and it cannot be denied that in many instances it tends to degeneration of tissue, especially that of the liver. Notwithstanding this admission, chronic alcoholism, or to use a homely expression, " habitual drunkenness," whether we consider it as a vice, a disease, or in varying proportions a combination of both, is only directly responsible for a very small percentage of the various physical evils to which flesh is heir. Prohibitionists would have us believe, simply because they say so, that the total abstainer is a healthier man than the moderate drinker, and this statement, which they cannot prove, is the foundation upon which they erect a vast edifice of frabrication and misrepresentation. Leaving habitual drunkards out of the question, and comparing temperate people with total abstainers, it may be said generally that the former are the healthier lot not only in appearance but in reality. The temperate drinker is more cheerful, better tempered, has a better digestion, sleepr better; he is less hypochondriacal, less troubled with " nervea " than the total abstainer. The temperate drinker will generally be found to have better teeth, more hair; he has a healthier complexion and his body is better nourished; he bears the sorrow, the cares, the ups and downs of life more philosophically, and is in a better condition to bear pain and to resist the inroads of disease.

The typical total abstainer has a thin, badly nourished frame, his complexion is sallow, the skin being leathery or parchment like ; he mostly has a wretched digestion, and is a prey to various nervous disorders ; his temper is irritable, and he worries through life rather than enjoys it. The abstainer is very often an inveterate smoker, and not infrequently becomes a victim to the

morphia or the chloral habit ; if he claims to enjoy good health his appearance usually belies him. If St. Paul could revisit this earth he would probably advise many of them, as he advised Timothy, to take a little wine for their stomach's sake. The stock quotations from the writings and speeches of eminent medical men are collected and proclaimed with the customary unfairness which characterises nearly every argument advanced by avowed Prohibitionists. They ransack the works of eminent men, and select only such passages as support their views, and quote only bo much as suits their purpose.

Amongst English medical practitioners a very large majority are not total abstainers, and most of them, including some which the Prohibitionists sever tire of quoting, find a legitimate sphere for the use of alcohol as a medicinal agent. A medical man may with absolute consistency condemn the use of alcohol by some persons, and strongly recommend it to others. If he does so, however, it is only the condemnation which has the remotest chance of being reproduced on Prohibition handbills. A cause must be unequivocally bad which needs to be bolstered up by both the suppressio veri and thssuggestiofalsi. Amongst other means adopted to prove that drink is tbe cause of disease, is the puerile and misleading magic lantern business ; some of the slides exhibit healthy tissue and some diseased, and if the exhibitor happened to transpose the slides few of the audience would be any the wiser. If a licensed victualler took the trouble to collect a few samples of diseased tissue from the corpses of total abstainers, he might, with exactly the same amount of cogency, exhibit by means oE a magic lantern, the disastrom results of total abstinence. A list of the diseases from which total abstainers are exemptwould be found to assume very modest dimensions. If we take the large group of zymotic or infectious diseases, the total abstainer is quite as liable to contract them as the moderate drinker ; his children will have scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough in quite as severe a form as the children of the temperate man or even of tho drunkard. As regards typhoid, which is so often associated with the drinking of impure water, the total abstainer is at a disadvantage as compared with the moderate party, whilst drunkards are practically exempt from it. Total abstainers are quite as liable to the various diseases of the lungs, including consumption, as other people — they catch cold in the tame waj and have their bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy, and influenza just like other people — perhaps the man who drinks has rather the advantage, for if he is wet through to the skin, shirering with cold, over fatigued, and out of sorts, he takes a dose of " poison," with sugar and hot water, and the results are usaally quite satisfactory. As regards diseases of the liver and of the kidneys the drunkard is at a disadvantage; he is undoubtedly more prone to them than the total abstainer, but there is not an atom of evidence to show that temperate people are more liable to them. Cancer singularly enough is progressing part passu with increasing temperance. What would our Prohibitionist friends say if it were seriously argued that total abstinence causes' cancer ? It would be about as logical a deduction as those they arrive at in their own peculiar way. As regards the digestive organs tea, is responsible for far greater mischief than alcohol ; the total abstainer may boast of his self-denial, but his own digestive organs often pay a heavy penalty for the excesI sive tea and coffee drinking aud the heavy meals with which he rewards himself. To most diseases tbe total abstainer is quite as liable as other people, including drunkards. . To diseases of the nervous system the teetotaller is peculiarly liable, especially to nervous exhaustion, the popular and newly discovered " neurasthenia" — a disease which old medical writers appear either to have never met with or to have entirely ignored. In the bard-drinking days, when every man drank what he liked, when he liked, and wherever he liked, " nerves " were supposed to be the attribute of fashionable young ladies ; men only recognised them as a necessary part of their organisation. Men, aye and women too, would undergo with heroic fortituhe the most painful operations — amputations of limbs, operations on the eye, etc. — without any anaesthetics ; indeed.they had not been discovered ; nowadays grown men want gas if they have a tooth pulled out, and for a trivial operation chloroform or ether is as indispensable as the knife. Tne race which is becoming more temperate is also becoming less manly. The most which Prohibitionists are iv a position to prove is that abuse of ardent spirits predisposes to some kinds of disease. When they try to prove that temperance causes disease, they have to imagine their facts, invent their statistics, and garble their quotations,

The Ber H Peters will oonduot service at Oastleoliff to-morrow evening, Mr B Tnoker is announced to preaoh at Long Aore to-morrow afternoon at 2.30. The ease of Jacobsen y. Brennan is to be resumed at 9.30 a.m. on Monday morning. Mr A D Willis inrites his supporters at the coming eleotion to meet him At Fordell to-night at 8 o'olook, The fifth free entertainment under the patronage of the Temperanoe Societies is to be held in the Oddfellows' Hall this ovening. The pulpit of Bfc Paul's Presbyterian Ohuroh will to-morrow morning and evening be oooupied by the Bey G B Monro, of Bemuera, Auoklsnd. Tha funeral of the late Mrs Horaoe Dixon will take pluoe to-morrow afternoon, tho oortege leaving her late residence at 2 o'olook. Entries for tho forthcoming show of the Kgmonb A. and P. Association close on Monday night next at 8 o'olook. Mr B N LiftUon is the local agent for the Ecmont Association, and entries will be received by him. Mr William Gibson, proprietor of the Artunoho 'basses, in another column, returns thanks to the publio generally for their kind support during the time that he has been catering for their wants, and hopoi to merit the oontinuence of their patronage. The attention of bioycliits is drawn to Mr 0 L Doigin'o advertisement in another oolnmn. The " Swift " maobine advertised is a model of " up-to-datedneis " and is well worthy of inspection. The " Boyal Salvo " maohine is a splendid ustf ul model and as it is to be sold cheap should readily command a purchaser. The same pattern maohine has stood the test of our rough roads for the last three years and thoroughly utisfied its riders. We advise our readers with an eye tor a new " bike " to interview Mr Dmgon before satisfying their requirement!.

The Manawatu and West Coast A, and P. Show will be held on Wednesday and Thursday next.

There has been a wholesale slaughter of fowls in Nspior. One resident has lost 30, and another 16. This ruthless destruction has bsen attributed to a dog.

The Manuwai will make the 'usual afternoon excursion to-morrow at 2.30 o'olook, weather permitting. The fares are— to Kennedy's Is, to Eaiwhaike 2s, return.

r lho total length of the oycling traok proposed to be laid ont by the Dnnedin Committee from Battray Street to St. Olair is three and a quarter miles— surely a good run.

The eldest daughter of Mr J. A'Oourt, Kumcra, a child of eight years of src, was dreadfully burned about the arrDi.nhoulL':-*, and face Jest week through her olothes oatohing Sre when she was roasting onions.

A North Island candidate for Parliamentary honors has announced that the chief plank in his platform is the borrowing of 10 millions sterling to open up the oountry by railways and other neceisarv works.

The late Mrs Horaoe Dixon having beep, a member of the Wesleyan Ohuroh and also of the choir the servioe at Trinity Ohuroh to-morrow morning will take the form of a memorial servioe.

The King of Portugal is fond of roaming about the streets of his oapital unattended. "On one oooasion," says a writer, " I saw him spring from his horse and pursue and capture a man who had fired a pistol at him.'

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agenov Company have received advioes that should snffioient wool be forthcoming during December and January, the Bakaia and the Waimate — two of the direot steamerswill call at Wanganui.

Things presented quite a lively appearance this morning between 6.30 and 7 o'olock in the vioinity of the Bailways Station, when some thirty of the horses oompeting at the meeting of tbe Wanganui Jookey Olub were shipped to their respeotlve homes south of Wanganui.

A marble olook is to bo prosented to to Mr A W Hogg, M.H.8., by his Fahiatua friends. On the front of the olook is engraved on a silver plate : — ' JP relented to A W Hogg, M.H.R, by his late Fahiatua constituents and friends, as a farewell token of esteem. Oct. 20, 1896."

The vioar of St. Peter's parish, Dancdin, has established a class for daily religious instruction to children attonding the State schools, this being held each morning at a quarter to nine. The experiment will at loaßt show whether parents are anxious for tb\s instruction.

Mr Goiben's handwriting is probably (he very worst amongst living etntesmen. He is very near-sighted, and once in the House of Commons, having pioked up ono of his own memoranda, and having vainly attempted to lead it, he exclaimed testily, " A man who writes like that ought not to be in public service."

The long-instituted Fitzherbert Fours will be competed for by members of the Wanganui Bowing Olub in about three weeks' time, entries for which close tonight. As already nominations sufficient for fire orews have been reoeived, this annual contest promises to be as keenly contested this year as on former ooensions.

The Pollard Opera Company concluded their Wangsnui season last evening at the OJdfellows'Hull with the production of the comio opera, 'La Maicotte.' They were favoured with another packed house, The Company left by the mid-day train for Wellington, where to-night they sail for Timaru, at whioh town they are billed to appear on Monday night.

During the very vivid lightning flashes last evening, the residents of Oastlecliff were startled by a loud boom, whioh some took to be a signal from a ship in distress. Inqniries having been made, it was found that a detonating rooket on the bridge of the Moa, whioh wai Jjihg at the Heads wharf, had been exploded by the lightning, the report being as loud as that of a oannon.

The anniversary services in connection with the Wesleyan Church at Aramoho are to be held to-morrow. Mr G Sputdlo will preach in the morning, and tbe Bey G Bond will oonduot the afternoon and evening services. Mr W H Bird will lead the musical portion of the sorvios. On the following Tuesday tho anniversary taa and entertainment will be held, a capital programmo boring been arranged far the latter.

The fact that but ono drnck has been arrested during the pant few days, speaks volumes for the sobriety of the people of Bad visitors to Wanganui. There was also an almost entire absence of the professional spieter clasi, although » few of the amateurs attempted to oarry on their work on the quiet. Sergeant Oullen and the members of the polioe force are deserving of the bast thanks of the community for the watchfulness they have displayed in guarding the interests of the people of Wangaoui.

Mr Hull-Jones, Minister for Publio Works, visited Wanganui on Thunday kit He wai met st the station by Mr Willis who made use of the two hours at the Minister's dispoial, to show him round the town as far as possible, and oxplain the various objeots of interest, including the pretty view of the town from the fl»gsti2. Mr Hall Jones was much struok with its bsauty, and expressed the favourable impression made on him. The Minister hai only been in Wanganui onoe before, on the oooasion of the funeral of the late Mr Ballanoe, and then had no time beyond following the funeral talesa les anything of the town. Notwithstanding the faol; that many of residents of Otitleoliff were absent owing to the races, Mr Willis last evening had a well attended and enthusiastic meeting of his supporters there. He spoke for about an hoar and the exposition of bis political riewi was listened to with attention, frequently interrupted with expressive remarks of approval. At the termination of his remarks a vote of confidence in him was oarried unanimously by those present. Mr Willis will hold a meeting of his supporters at Fordell this evening. The meeting oallfd for Monday at Maxwell has bein postponed owing to the Rev. Mr Bond holding a meeting on the same evening.

Messrs Parsons and 00, have received a shipment of the Collier two-speed ovules, samplos of whioh may be soen at their premises in Wioktteed Plaoe. We understand that the maohines are manufactured by the very best English makers. A num ber of improvements have been effected in the make, one of the main features being the reduotion in weight of the gear, whioh is at present only one-half of the gear formerly vied. Tho ovoles are made up double.butted high-tension taugent spokes, with Westwood rims, Dunlop tyres, tho plating and enamelling being of the highest finish. The weight of the maohine being now reduced to 271bs, will no doubt prove an incentive to those in want of a bike to pay Messrs Parsons and Co. a visit before purchasing elsewhere, as these machines are a choice of perfection.

The sequel to a thrilling story of love, jealousy, passion, and hatred is being worked out of the neighbourhood of Ooomassio at the present time. Some years ago a slave girl of surpassing beauty, of the Ashontee type, of course, had the misfortune to attract the fickle fancy of a chief. To reproaoh a husband in Ooomatsie is dangerous. His head wife forebore to risk her head, bnt sent for the executioner, and caused the ears and lips of the too fasoinating maiden to be removed, rendering her such an object as can only be seen in savage kingdoms. History does not say if the expedient answered the purpose of restoring the ohiof'j wandering affeotions to their rightful owner, but the slave girl developed, not unnaturally, into a woman with »n undying thirst for revenge. Latolv she sought an andience with the Governor, and informed him that the real treasure of the Ashantees lies buried some fifty feet below the soil, in a disused shaft of a mine near Ooomassif, and rapidly undertook to point out tho spot. Digging is being vigorously oarried on, already more than a fourth of the depth has been cleared, and should the treasure amount to anything like the rumaured value, the cost of the expedition will be defrayed, making the AshaDtee war a reoord one, as nob only bloodless bnt free of coit. The riches o£ African kings, however, sayi the writer of the above, belong to bygone days, and Prempeh's wealth is probably muoh exaggerated.

Dr Jamieson's trial i» rapidly approaching. As to whether hii action was a wiie one or not ii a grave question. The trial of Woods' Great Peppermint pare for Coughs and Colds has boen a decided success—it is allowed by all to be unequalled —from all Grocers and Chemists, Is 6d and 2«6d. Wholesale Agents, N.ZjDfugCoy

* # * On our fourth page will be found the weights for Waverloy Baces, Court and telegraphic news; also tbe first portion of a story entitled " The Stowaway."

Mr D Davies has now on view at his officn a sample of the famous Columbia Bioycle, whioh is manufactured in a thoroughly v > to date stylo. Those who intend buying » maohine would do well to pay a visit to "Ir Davies' shop and inspect this new bike.

In the case Wellington Hospital Truucct's v their lute steward, L S Wilkes,to recover £189 misted from the safe in April last, ,VT t Wurdell, 8.M., after hearing tbe deferjea, held that defendant was guilty of negligence, and gave a verdict for plaintiffs for the amount claimed with £13 costs.

Ac the Auckland Diocesan Synod, Aroh* deacon CJlnrk stated that the Ngatimaniapoto people in Waipa wore demoralised by strong drink, and in their district, tha King Country, whioh was nominally a prohibited district, they consumed twioe as much liquor as in any distriot outside the prohibited boundary.

Mr Robert Davis, who gave evidence in the Jacobsen and Brennsn case, complains that the statement that he lives at the Masonic Hotel has boen twisted to the meaning that ho had something to do with the missing plans h«ing found on the Biver Bank in that vioinity. Mr Davis indignantly deniei that he knew anything of the affair, or had anything to do with it iD any way.

The Cbrietohurch Weekly Press of the 22nd contains an excellent likeness of " Mr Peter D Hogg, candidate lor Wanganui," amongst its Hat of Parliamentary candidates. Mr Hogg is a pronounced Conservative and has bad strong assurances of support from that Party, who are getting tired of continual defeats through supporting Mr Gilbert Oarion, who has so often vainly attempted to capture the seat from the Liberal Party here.

Mr Walter Impett has arranged for a visit oE the world-renoorned pianiste and oomposer, tho Chevalier do Kontski, who is at present on a short tour of tho prinoipul cities of New Zsaland. The Chevalier was a pupil of Beethoven, and is in the front rank of musicians of the present day. His recitals have boen attended by large audiences, and his visit to Wanganui will no doubt be awaited with interest, the reoitil will probibly take place nszt week.

The following additional fixtures have been arranged by Inspectors Bindon and Milne, m connection with the annual of schools under the Wanganui Education Board : — Aramoho, Monday and Tuesday, 16th and 17th Novera■bor; Okoia and Sautatea, Taesday, 17th ; Bulls, Thursday and Friday, 19th and 20th; Brunswick and Kaitoke, Monday, 2Srd ; Soman Catholic Schools, Wednesday and Thursday, 25th and 26th ; Castlecliff, Friday, 27th.

Mr T D O'Toole, of the firm of Messrs Hulbett, O'Toole, and Co., mining agents, Auokland, is at present on a visit to Wanganui. He is iloatipg the mining property known as the Waitekauri Jubilee Syndicate, situated in the centre of the distriot, and surrounded by well-known olnims, such as the Waitekauri United, 'Xhe Jubilee, add Ingall, all of whioh are now* hold and suocesifully worked by London companies. The titles to tbe properties are all complete. Mr J G Siilph, mine manager, has drawn ud a c&pitil report on the property, giving all information as to future development. Plans, report, and prospectus can bo seen at the office of, and nil information obtained from, the local agent, Mr Basil Ferguson, Taupo Quay.