TEMPERANCE NOTES.

Western Star, Issue 1546, 21 March 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

TEMPERANCE NOTES.

Published under arrangement with the New Zealand Temperance Alliance.) Ih'ftv years ago e l most everybody drank'and offered drink; now they generally make a sort of apology it they take or give intoxicating liquor. Temperance lessons are to be included at intervals in the International Sunday School series. The Rex. Thomas Evans, in a journey of over 8C )0 miles iu India, has organised over fifty Temperance associations, and has* taken more than 50, C10 pledges. Dr Lefroy (Dean of Norwich) says he knew that some people told them they could not enjoy or do their work without their glass. That was a mistake. The only man who could not do his work without his glass was the glazier, and he ventured to say that a man in good health could do an enormous amount of work in absolute independence of the stimulus of strong drink. When on his deathbed Father Matthew said;—“With rapture I hail the formation of the United Kingdom Alliance. I laboured for the suppression of intemperance until I sacrificed my health and little property in a glorified cause. The efforts of individuals, however zealous, were not equal to the mighty task. The United Kingdom Alliance strikes at the very root of the evil. I trust in God that the associated efforts of many good and benevolent men will effectually crush a monster gorged with human gore.” Progressing. The new licensing bill, introduced into the Legislative Assembly by Sir Henry Parkes, provides for the granting of licenses to publicans of three years. This lengthened term of licenses will be rc-

garded a$ sufficient compensation to the publican for any loss he may suffer thereafter. The measure also sets forth that a two-thirds majority of householders can prevent the renewal of a license, and a simple majority can reduce the number of licenses in any district by a certain number, or determine whether or not new licenses are to be granted. To Parents.—A paper was read at the mettings of the American Social Science A ssociation in which its author traced prevalence of intemperance to heredity. Fully 40 per cent, of drunken cases come from an inebriate ancestry ; 20 per cent, come from insane, epileptic, and mentally defective ancestors, so that 60 per cent, of our drunkards come into being launched into existance “ freighted with diseased tendencies and impulses which burst into activity from the slightest exciting causes.” A legacy of inebriety to a child is equivalent to a legacy of moral and spiritual destruction. The Tongue Test.—Dr. Robert Bentham, of Willesden, writes in the Lancet: —“In the examination of many thousands of proposals for life assurance with one fact I have been forcibly impressed, that the total abstainers, as a rule, exhibit a much cleaner condition of tongue, more like ' that of a young child, as compared with the tongue of a moderate drinker. ] So much have I been struck with this evidence that now from the condition of the tongue I can generally guess whether the person under examination be a total abstainer or otherwise. ”