100 YEARS AGO
The Bible and prohibition
THE prohibition of alcoholic drinks in the interest of morality cannot be reconciled with the Bible, writes a correspondent. To prove it, he sends me a string of Bible texts. Thanks; I knew them already. But not easily would he find texts against prohibition in the interest of economy. Prohibition as a war measure is one thing; prohibition as the normal rule of life is another. I vote for the first; I utterly reject the second. Dullwitted compulsionists of the old school fail to make this distinction. Sticking to the economy argument, insisting on
abstinence as a war measure, they might carry with them ninetenths of the citizenship. But no; like the dog to his vomit and the sow to her wallowing in the mire, back they go to their immoral fallacy that morality may be based on compulsion. Which is to say that men in gaol, who don’t get drunk because they can’t, are a model of true temperance. Whence it follows that in relation to drink and drunkenness, New Zealand must be clapped in irons; not in the interest of economy, but in the interest of morality; not for the duration of the war, but for ever and a day. As a matter of tactics this is sheer idiocy. The recommendation of the Efficiency Board served every purpose. To go beyond it is to antagonise the harmless moderate man and to lose votes.
The Bible, if the Bible must be brought in, is from end to end the charter of the moderate drinker. St Paul, usually accepted as an authority, gives the rule for moderate drinking: ‘‘Be not drunk with wine, wherein is
excess.’’ He might have said: ‘‘Touch not, taste not, handle not,’’ but he didn’t. Then there is his advice to Timothy, a locus classicus: Paul the Apostle to Timothy: ‘‘Take a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.’’ Inference clear, from this admonition: Paul the Apostle votes — No prohibition. In John Morley’s ‘‘Life of Gladstone’’ occurs a sentence worth quoting in this context — a sentence from a letter by Mr Gladstone to a friend: How can I, who drink good wine and bitter beer every day of my life, in a comfortable room and among friends, coolly stand up and advise hardworking fellow-creatures to ‘‘take the pledge’’? Much less would he have set a whole nation under ban.
Mr Gladstone lived to a great age; for good or ill he filled a great place; no man of his time got more hard work into fourandtwenty hours. And it does not appear that he was any the worse for his good wine and bitter beer. There must be many a moderate of his type in New Zealand. — Civis.
Not hot to trot
A story that is causing a lot of joy among the local racing fraternity (says the Oamaru Mail) is that of the woes and trials of a pair of trainers to whom, recently, an upcountry owner (not 100 miles from Hakataramea) sent a couple of horses, one a galloper and the other a trotter. The latter was to be placed at Waimate, and the other with an Oamaru stable. In the process the horses became mixed, resulting in Waimate getting the galloper and Oamaru the trotter. The man at Waimate tried to get a trot out of his horse, but, despite the use of ‘‘hobbles’’ and other devices, failed ignominiously. Meanwhile the Oamaru trainer was in despair over his charge, which wouldn’t gallop worth a cent. After three weeks he gave it up and sent word to the owner to come and take it away, stating the reason. The owner arrived post haste, and an examination revealed the comic blunder. — ODT, 21.9.1918.