Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 38, 22 September 1904, Page 1

Current Topics

Licensing* Reform The Rev. Osbert Mordaunt, an Anglican clergyman, is, perhaps, the only member oE the ' clotJi ' who plays the dotuible role of village vicar and village publifcan. He in thjes owner of a cosy little inn at Ilamtpton Lucy (England) and ' runs 'it on strict ' reform ' lines. A few weete ago Dr. Potter, Episcopalian Bishop of New York, solemnly opened and ' dedicated ' a ' reform ' saloon at the corner of Bleecker and Mulberry streets in the American metropolis. The new saloon sets out to be a, tavern of faultless respectability, excluding women from the bar, stocked with files of newspapers and magazines, and selling drink I',1 ', only in the strictest moderation. Bishop Potter's action in ' dedicating ' the new saloon has sent a whirling storm of contradictory iommemts about his head. One of those whb \iew the new-departure saloon witdi favor is the great Catholic temperance advocate, Bishop Spalding. 'In general,' he says, ' it seems to me that so far as tjius new saloon tends to mitigate the old evils it may be' accepted as a fortunate compromise measjure. • • Iti may be loofked upon as an indication that the old anjd righteous battle for a moic orderly, a miore decent condition of life in ou(r cities is not being suffered to decline in heaviness a,n!d sincerity.'

One of the really valuable features in the ' Bishop Potter ' saloon is this : that treating is absolutely prohibited within its walls. Some tfiree or four years ago one of our stipendiary magistrates declared up Taranaki way that the treating; habit— .n colonial, 4 shouting '—is one of the curses of New Zealamd and one of tihe worst causes of intemperance. In the ; ear of grace 1901 there was started in the diocese of Ferns, Ireland, a live and vigorous Anti-Treating League. It spreaJd rapidly throughout Ireland, and we hope to see its beneficent influence speedily extended to these countries as well. An e&teemed friend of ours, who 'did yeoman service in setting the movement afloat, urged, in first broaohing the scheme, that if the crusade were altogether directed l against the pernicious custom of accepting reciprocal favors-— which is known as "the same again "—the benefit would in every way be incalculable, and a large measure of success attainable. Let us remember, ' he added, ' that our endeavor should be directed principally to one class— not to total abstainers, nor to the great multitude whose rcpresenta-

live Father Martin Dunne (God rest his soul !) met going into a public house iti his parish. " Luke," said he, " Uho devil is going in there with you." " Begor, t>ir," said Luke, " it's not worth his while ; I've only tuppence. V '

Bazaars St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, is one of the world's gems of ecclesiastical architecture. The vast sutrn of £230, ,000 has "been spent upon it during the past fifty years, and, when completed, it will, like that of Melbourne, taike rank among the great cathedrals of "he earttti. At the recent St. Mary's Cathedral Fair the Archbishop of Melbourne touched upon gambling — a subject which was lately raised in Christchurch by an Oamaru clergyman with small Knowledge of his subject and, as; regards Catholics, with offensive intent. ' Some pensions, 1 said the Archbisihop, ' who fail to make bazaars succeisfofiul oppose them on moral grounds. They claim that tihey are likely to engender a taste for gambling. Well, I have had a good deal (of experience in these baz/aars. I never knew anyone who attended them to acquire such a taste. If a person acquired iiiat taste at the first time, of going, he soon lost it. He had only to go a second time to have the taste leyssctneW, end if ho went) a third or fourth time the tasto wo/ul'd soon Le completely eradicated.'

In the autumn of 189G the ' Scotsman ' (the leading daily paper in the Land o' Cakes) gave a [verbatim report of a sermon preached by a Protestant clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Blair, to his congregation in St. John's, Edinburgh. In the course of his sermon Dr. Blair said : 'As I'o those who objected to) rafHes on the ground that they were calculated to foster the spirit of gambling, 'he observed that, in this uncertain life of theirVs 1 , almost all matters had more or less of the element objected to in raffles— the element of uncertainty,, of chance, and of hazard. This procariousness, this doulbjtPulnee's in life gave' no smatfl zesrfcl to axlistfenice 1 tmd entered more or less into all the circumstances of iiheir being. , If raffling cherished the spirit of gambling, the same might be said of most of the pursuits of life. And these pursuits were destitute of the spirit of hilarity and fun which invariably accompanied bazaar raffles'. One could hardly imagine anyone speculating o n raffle tickets at a bazaar with tihe mercenary spirit of making gain. It was generally done because the pur-dhase-r-desired to help the object in view, or to oblige a frionid, and he seldom cared whether the article subscribed for came ,to him or not.. He (Dr x Blair) might

be wrotolg,, but he confessed he never could see the obpftiojns taken to this foim of sale, which many valued arid respected friends of his took in the light which they did. He should be heartily sorry to countenance anything that would tend to lead anyone astray, but he coiuld hardly conceive of such a trifling matter as a bazaar raffle domg so. Ji>xc-ess in anything lc'l to disaster and the most lefi+imate pursuit miglht be abused by excess. But to reason against the legitimate i^e because of the excess of some, would lead in many things to extraordinary consequences.' * We have before us olhcial returns which slliow that licenses for church lotteries have been granted in _ New Zealand not alone to Catholics and Anglicans-, but 1o Presbyterians as well. It is, perhaps, a case in which 1 Wo arc most ldd to Men's principles by what they do.'

Drink ' Cures ' Dr. F. Triiby King's Report on the Ilomrs for Inebriates in New Zealand is a document of melancholy and not ve!ry hopeful interest. In the course of a lenguhy and, exhaustive examination of the treatment of inebriety the Medical Superintendent touched upon a subject] which was some years ago treated in our editorial columns. We refer to the matter of the muohadvortiseid secret ' cures ' tWat have been for some lime upon Hhe market. The most recent medical verdict up^on two of the ' remedies ' most in vogfue coincides completely with the views Vcxpiessed by us on the stromgtii of intimate Knowledge of cases tieated Ly them. ' The latest research, 1 >says Dr. Tiuby Kins;, 1 was made last year by the British Medical Assajiatiotn,, whitJh, after investigating the claims of the seven '^xernQdiev^ * having thfo greatest 1 vogue,' came tor the conclusion that none of them were worthy of support. At -the head of the list as regards expense come the Keeley and Ilagcy " cures," tine former costing from £35 to £10 for four weeks', and the latter twenty -live to thirty guineas for three weeks' treatment The " Tysojn c/u,re " (a vegetable remedy) is specially inteiestiftg, because it appears, hi c fhe Keel-ey cure, to have isluf'Vi'ved and flourished in spite of having, been ahown long ago to be unworthy of consideration, 'though the fact Iras evidently escaped the attention of I he British Mcfdical Association. I find in the report of the Departmental Parliamentary Committee on Inebriates foi; L 895, under the heajdi'ng " Secret Cures," an accquhti of a fair trial made by a committee appointed by the Good Templais of Dundee, ur.fder the s-upeiin-tehdence of Dr. Tyson's London agent : ' Nineteen patients went thiough the twenty-one dajs 1 cooiTse. The result at first seemed vefry satisfactory, itnjd tjhe committee neportcd on 2nd February ' that the sHatomientsi made by Dr. Tyson up to the close of ihe treatment were fully justified.' The committee followed up the cias«s. By the 1 lth of October, or eight months attid) la Ih'alf after the conclusion of t'hc treatment, all but four 'had relapsed into their old habits. Of the fifteen w-hb had done so, however, it was asserted that in mo" oaso had the lapses been due to a rctunn of the erasing.' ' T'hev had all resumed drinking because they wanted to join their old friends." The parliaments y committee reported : " Everything we have heard leads us to 'believe that no reliance whatever is to be placed upon rt<hlese secret cures', which in our opinion are absolutely worthless." In spite of this report it appears that some forty tlrous'and persons have beeto treated ty the Tyson cure.'

Dr. Trfuby King's report continues : ' Iti the British Mediqal Association's report special stress is laiS upon the (absence of anything worthy of the name of statistics. Claim, is laid tb curing from 80 to 80 per cent ot patients', foul this is supported morely toy " testimony

of cure " offered by particular individuals, without any evidence as? to numbers. There is no reason' whatever

to doubt tihe sincerity or genuineness of the testimony so fax a3 it goes ; but the extraordinary fact is tlwk it si ould be accepted by anyone as having any weight in supporting generalised statistics. In the article I have alieady .quoted by Canon Fleming appears the following: " But the most interesting pait of my committee-work comes 1 when it is time to hold the annual meeting, and when laxlios and gentlemen who have been through the treatment assemble hefore a small Board ' to; testify.' It is like one of those missionary meetings at which converts come forward to declare their conversion." Before the days when the treatment of alcoholi&im had' 1 becomo the happy hunting ground of the quack, it would have 'boon quite ea.sy in any town in New Zealand to pick o,ut several genuine cases of men who, after having been iheaivy drinkers for a numbefc of years, had managed to master their failing. It would be strange indeed if among the half-million drinkers who are alleged to have tiied togi\c up their habit, and sought, the aid of the Keeley mojstrum in the Northern Hemisphere, there could not, 'bo fofund a considerable number who had succeeded. Some years' aeo a wave of " specific treatment '/ for inebriety passed over this Colony, and a large number of persons submitted themstelvea to be cured A considerable nlum'ber of the patients sent to Orokoflui had been so trefaitefd, and I know from them and from reliable mudica,l testimony how very few throughout the whole country- kept well after the first year. Dr. Colquhoun, the leetjuren on the Practice of Medicine in pur University,, iwho has given s'pocial attention to the subject of inebriety, informed me a year asro that out of the large number of patients treated in Duned n their e was, so far atef he could as'cort'aiji, only one patient wjio had not relapsed.'

Dr. Truby King next touches with a master-hand a phase of his sirb.iect which was miore than once the tojpic of comment in our editorial columns. lie says : ' The 'aispeet of the treatment of inebriety upan which I have been dwelling would be of comparatively little practical importance, so far as the Government institution is concerned, we're it not for the fact tthat, as I have already stated, public opinion has been almost entirely built, directly or indirectly, upon misleading statements of advertising quad's We have to contend ag'airi'j'fc tlif 1 degenerate credulity of the d>av, the tendency to vnreasnningly welcome anything that may happen to be new, without pausing to inquire whether it be good or even possible. As Max Nordau says : "There is a wund of rending, in dvery tradition. . . Views that have hitherto governed min'd^ are dead. . . Where a market vendor sets up his Looth and claims to give an answer, where a fool or a l.nave suddenly begins to prophcsiy in verse or prose, in sound or color, or profeslses to practise Irs art otherwise than his 1 prodecessors or competitors, there gathers a great concourse." Every short cut to salvation for drunkards, if loudly enojU'gfa proclaimed, is thou'ghtlesiS'ly welcomed by thousands'. The body and soul of man have been lowered, in the popular conception, to the level of a test-tube and its' contents in the (hands of a chemist ; and humanity has brought itself to believe that the mind and the will can b n rMrengt'hened and e'xtem'ded by Ifre direct and specific, action of drugs u,pon the cells of the brain. We have eve;ry reason to believe that this will never be the case, that '■' ev'ol'utio-n -while you wait " will never be available at the bidding of any dharlatan. We may be tha.n'kful that there is still some room for human choice and effort, that the " Pilgrim's Progress " is net entirely obsolete. As Dr. Urqulhart says : " The latest dictate of science is in confirmation of the wisdom of tihe agios. If we grant that the will traverses the cells arid fibres of the brain along paths that are capable of auto-development, and that normal man is so endowed with mental powers as to be in truth " tjhe captain of liis soul," verily it is our duty to avoid ignoble

thought, and to entertain high purposes. » . Not least upoft vis is laid the apostolic injunction to think on those things which are of goiod report. Perennial is the corama/nd ; perennial are the rewards, written large upon mdiividjual character, and upon the lives of those intrusted to our care." ' The lessen is such that those wh 0 run niiay read. Dr. Truby King sets it forth in the following brief but meaning woi'ds • ' This, surely, is the poiiit of View which we sholild impress upon our inebriate patients' — that their ultimate redemption from vice and disease must rcist largely with themselves, and that while in the Home they rmust be equipping themselves in body, mind, and morals for an putsfrde environment full of pitfalls 'and temptations.' But there's the rub. .Which of us has not known inebriates to rise, by grace and personal effort and watchfulness, superior t 0 temptation ? But t)he heart-breaking feature of this mysterious failine; i.; t/he way in which it plucks the eyes aut of some men that they cannot t.ee or realise their «tate, and are satisfied and soiak their swill, without effort and with little remorse, till the undertaker plants them in line drunkards' unilionorod graves.