PROHIBITION AND BI-METALLISM

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume V, Issue 249, 2 May 1895, Page 9

PROHIBITION AND BI-METALLISM

Two subjects in the public mind Are uppermost of late, Which, though they differ much in kind, As matter for debate, One point alike they both possess, For each is cause of schism, And prohibition none the less Than is bimetallism. While some the cup which cheers prefer, Though non-intoxicating ; The merits of their choice they err, In rather overstating. In language most intemperate For temperance they plead, Meanwhile they wildly execrate The liquor sellers’ greed. The cause, they say, of all our ills, The waste of all our savings Is due to beer, and whisky stills And alcoholic cravings> Were but these spirits exercised, We’d Plenty have, and prize it, And shortly would be canonised Our patron saint, St. Isitt. But others to another cause Ascribe our retrogression, And promise us, amidst applause, A cure for the depression. In language scholarly and choice, And crammed with erudition, They tell us with persuasive voice The cause of our condition. It seems the source of all or woe, Commercial cataclysm, Is due, so tell us those who know, To—Monometallism. The panacea for our ills, Depression’s exorcism, Tho only one which fills the bills Is just—Bimetallism. Tbe newest way old debts to pay Has thus at last been found ; You get a clear receipt for, say,. Ten shillings in the pound. Truth, it is said, lies in a well, A statement allegorical; Her state, I fear, of those who tell Such tales is metaphorical. —Christchurch Press.