176 LABRADOR 



Some trouble is caused by the fact that the mail steamer 

 brings down regularly to private individuals liquor which 

 is bought and paid for in St. John's. They can even carry 

 it down for "cash on delivery" and still escape the law. 



Naturally, this opens a very wide loophole for the enemy 

 of the fishermen. Foreign vessels are still unfortunately 

 in the habit of giving away rum to those loading them with 

 fish. The total quantity drunk, however, is very small 

 indeed. Thousands of our fishermen are absolute ab- 

 stainers on principle, and a very strong anti-liquor senti- 

 ment prevails almost universally. The results are obvious 

 in the fact that we have not one policeman stationed along 

 the whole coast; not one among twenty-five thousand 

 people. We have no penitentiary, and there has not been, 

 to my knowledge, a conviction for drunkenness. During 

 sixteen years I have personally not seen one fisherman 

 drunk. It is very different among the North Sea fisher- 

 men. Alcohol has there been the downfall of some of the 

 best men. It has cost the lives of more than one of my 

 own friends. It has ruined and starved many families 

 I have known and loved. 



A careful study of the health conditions of the coast by 

 the doctors of our staff all these years has shown that there 

 is no need for liquor whatever in these subarctic climates ; 

 that, on the contrary, the first man to go down in hard 

 physical conditions is almost always the drinking man. 

 Among men on the sea the dangers from its use are 

 enormously enhanced. As a method of making money, 

 I can conceive of few that are so despicable, so inhuman, 

 as this liquor traffic ! 



The complete absence of artificial class distinctions on 



