TOAST DRINKING.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 109, 16 January 1873, Page 2

TOAST DRINKING.

Tnr. following remarks are worth notice:— " I have no desire to provoke a controversy on the relative merits of abstinence nncl of moderate use, with regard to intoxicating liquors ; but, as a humble temperance reformer, I des'rous of bencfitting my fellow men by helping to abolish, that which 13 the most fruitful source of their miseries and their crimes — at least in this country — namely, the custom of drinking alcoholic Doveragos, I ciwe permission to nnso my voice, or the voire of mv weak pen, against what ? 1 conceive to be a most ridiculous, irrational, unmanly, absurd, pernicious, and indefensible practice — the practice of drinking toasts. Just imagine an assembly of educated, men labouring under, and acting upon, the delusion that they cannot sufficiently manifest their loyalty to theirsovereign, their respect for a worthy citizen, or their good wishes for the success of n now-hmnjched enterprise, unless they drink the healthy happiness, and prosperity of somebody, or something, in what is elegantly styled il 'hearty bumper.' It is, to say the least, silly to drink glass after glass, or to. drink any for such a purpose; it is hypocritical to make such a purpose a pretext for drinking. Theso are horns of the dilemma, and toast-drinkers can determine whether, they shall be considered fools or hypocrites. Pleading the antiquity, tho prevalence, or the supposed necessity of the custom, will not save them from being classed in one or other of those categories, for no precedent,, or number of precedents, can justify the observance of an essentially bad custom. And to say it is necessary is to acknowledge themsehes slaves to fashion, for unreal necessity exists, seeing that other men, as Io3«il, as patriotic, and M hospitnhle a^ tho toast drinkers, can have their ' luncheons' and ' banquets' and expres* their 'sentiments' without the aid of any bumpers. It would be more to tho purpose, if only it wero possible, for the toust-drinkers to. satisfy re isoning men as to the essential connection between wine sipping and lo\alty ; to explain the nature and state tlic benefits of tlwit phj t>iologie*l fc»t of 'drinking jour health ;' and to show how the spectacle of a meeting, say, of 1 town councillors, merchants, brewers, and clergymen stirring each other up to refill their glasses and quaff a full bumper' — in public-home phraseology, to ' have another halfone—thus leading the terrible influence of their example to to those social usages which, at a temperance meeting, they can chimcterisc as the curse of our country — how all this is calculated to promote the. sobriety aud; peaceful nes.s of theinhabitants, the success of Hie Belfast traim\a>s, the prosperity of Ireland, or the accomplishment of any good" objects whatever. I trust, sir, that the time will soon como" when people will have the sense ami the courage to meet ' around tho social board in a rational way, siml Hint onrinflucnti.il mm while laudably and Bugcc«s|'ullv endeavouring to de\elop-our local and national resources,* will see that which, cmi now, constitutes the greatest hindrance to thii moral aud. material prosperity of our country.