THE MEMORIAL OF THE AUCKLAND TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 48, 4 July 1844, Page 3

THE MEMORIAL OF THE AUCKLAND TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY.

To His Excellency Captain Fitzroy, R.N., Governor of New Zealand. Sfc. 5;c., and to the Htmou* able Members of the Legislative Council, at present assembled. May it please your Excellency, and your honourable Council, */ R is with the deepest concern and alarm that this Meeting, composed of the Members of the Auckland Total Abstinence Society, publicly assembled, contemplate the direful consequences which must inevitably ensue both to tile Aboriginal and European population of New Zealand, from the reduction of tite duty on ardent spirits, and the repeal of the Ordinance for prohibiting distillation as contemplated by the Government of this country. At so eventful a crisis at the present, the cheaps effing- of a liquor, the fruitful source of intemper, ance, poverty and crime; a liquor in which so many thousands of pounds are already yearly expended, and at a season when the aborigioai natives aie beginning to acquire a taste for those drams, which man, in his most refined condition, has found to be tbe most insidious, beguiling, and overwhelming of temptations, would be at once to open the flood gates of iniquity, and give an impetus to crime. The encouragement of tbe extensive production and consumption of ardent spirits, for drinking purposes must ever be attended in this country, with the most disastrous results, forming evils of the most appalling magnitude, destructive to the body and the mind, to tbe present and to future generations,.. to posterity unborn, and is calculated to engender the most serious quarrels between the Maories aud # the

Whites, quarrels which may not only endanger the safety of Her Majesty’s subjects who have emigrated to these shores, but which may lead to the extermination of the ooe, and to the eternal degradation of the other. Should the duties in question be lowered, and distillation be sanctioned bv law, facilities which do not now exist, will be afforded for the universal use of intoxicating' liquors, and the natives will learn and practice the art of dis- 1 filiation, and become, as much enslaved by tire use of spirits,(as in another case by the habitual use of tobacco;,) counteracting by intemperance, nearly ail that ha# been done for their moral and religious improvement, and rendering abortive the efforts of those philanthropic individuals who are about engaging in a somewhat different form the cultivation of the Maori mind. “It is stated in the minutes of evidence taken before the ’Select Committee on Drunkenness, ap* , pointed by the House of Commons, that from the lowering of the duties on spirits, in the year 1825 to 1831 inclusive,'dbring a period of six years the number of gallons distilled in England, Scotland, and Ireland; t .amounted to 153,914,632 gallons,, being an increase upoti the six previous years of! 71,473,920 gallons, or very nearly double the quantity pieviously consumed, with this notorious fact annexed..that in proportion to the increased con-‘ sumption ofgdlstilled spirits, so had been the increase of pauperism and crime. It is also stated in relation to the suppression of distillation, that crime! and spirit drinking are so intimately connected j that it is impossible for Government to license the one without directly producing the other j and if! Government is,(according to Ordination, to be the Minister of God, for good to the people, it cannut consistently with that high ordination, license the general use of a liquid which and inevitably produces wickedness, and misery,, wretchedness aud o ime among the people. A, Government can never repress or diminish criiqej among a people so long as they promote distillation and the sale of ardent spirits, and no government that either regards Hie happiness virtue or security of its people, which is the great object ftf its existence, can license the manufacture or sale of a liquid which never makes men good, but invariably makes them wicked. The use of ardent spirits forms ooe of the greatest causes of insanity among the people ; this is also one of the reasons why Government ought not to sanction the n*e of a liquor which deprives so many of its subjects of their entire reason, in addition to ihe countless cases of partial insanity, and temporary madness. The dealing in spirits and spirit drinking being legalized by the Government is one of the most effective means of sinking the people into poverty and wretchedness. It is chiefly the intemperate anddiunkards who speud their money, who leave their families in want and starvation, and are a burden on the community. It is enquired how can smuggling be prevented in the uumerous bays and creeks of New Zealand? If may be answered, notwithstanding the demoralizing effect of smuggling be great, that it operates only on a very small portion of the population, and the demoralizing influence of the general use of spirits wouid be a hundred fold greater ; there would be a hundred fold more evil and crime, and immorality by permitting the general use of spirits than by smuggling. Smuggling never prospers so well with a prohibited as with a legalized article, if you suppress distillation by legislative enactment, entirely, and make it not only illegal to distil but illegal to sell or to purchase, then smuggling would have a mightier resistance to overcome, a mightier difficulty to contend with, which would go far to effect its complete suppression. It is said in favour of distillation, that the people will drink, and that if liquors are imported, the circulating medium will be taken out of the country ! It may bp; answered, the determination of the people to follow, any vice, is no reason why the Government should; facilitate or legalize the vice by licensing the produce or sale of intoxicating liquors. “ It is a doctrine'which has often been demonstrated by facts, that distilled and alcholic liquors are not requisite in any form as a beverage for man. It would be easy to give almost innumerable testimonies relative to the non-necessity existing' for the use of intoxicating liquors, excepting only as a medicine, or for scientific purposes, and such testimonies have been given by the most able medical men. It is not however necessary to plead the non-necessity »n question, of the use of distilled liquors ; we must take the still higher ground aud point to pauperism and crime, to misery and distress, to murder and to bloodshed, to degei.e raev, to ruin, and to death, as the ripened fruits of the habit of drinking ! He that tups, drinks,, .usually 1 drinks more freely, drenches his system with the treacherous poison, his body becomes diseased, bi# mind deranged, his virtue lost, hi* religion evaporates, his constitution is broken, and his soul undone, —the widow mourns, the fatherless children weep, friends regret, society pities, and the sc< ne, painful, cruel, and iniquitous, is renewed a thousand times, a thousand times is seen, a thousand times is told, yet, alas ! the lesson is taught in vain, .the liquor continues to-be distilled, continues to be imported, continues to be sold, and continues to be sanctioned by the license of the State, while not less than 60,000 persons, our countrymen in Great Britain alone—die yearly the victims of Intemperance, while many of Ibis unhappy class of beings, accelerate their doom by the perpetration of crimes of the deepest dye. Shall it be said that wherever the white man traverses the globe, he distributes this poison.. .a poison that may be either quick or slow according to its quantity, but always sure in its pernicious effects ; shall it be said that the white man delights in ruin and glories in devastation, that he blights as by pestilence the sobt-r savage, darkens the fairest scenes, withers the brightest prospects, and renders desolate the aboriginal inhabitant* of the most fertile regions of the earth. Much as we value the advantage*, the triumphs of civilization, what are these to the rude barbarian, when accompanied in their train with vices like to intemperance, and ks dread results, that ruin, that destroy, and that exterminate ? The miseries and desolation concomitant upon the use of intoxicating liquors In general, and of ardent spirits in particular, have been manifestly exemplified in the northern regions of America, in the

interesting islands of the Great Pacific, and in many and various countries of our globe. Most assuredly would this meeting and your petitioners, as Members of the Auckland Total Abstinence Society; be wantitig in that humanity which is so essential to the right constitution of rational and moral beings; were we to be silent on the present occasion, and fail to raise our voices in the present emergency, on behalf of our species. At Glasgow, in the yeah 1830, the Judge who pre. sided stated in his address to the Sheriff and Magistrates that upwards of 80 criminals bad stood before bis tribunal, and received sentence of punishment more or less, and that with scarcely a solitary, exception every one of the crimes had been committed while under theinfluenoe of intern* perance ; and in concluding his address he stated it was a disgrace to, such a large and respectable community that so many publio houses and so much spirit drinking should be permitted by the publio authorities. That same year the Judge who pre* sided at Perth, stated to the Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace, that of. 83 criminals who bad stood before his ttibunal, 2f of them distinctly appeared to have committed their crimes while under the influence of intemperance. > The above two facts out of a great number thaj might be given, were testified by Mr. William Collins in evidence before the House of Commons, and dead <to show ■in concert with innumerable other evidences that intoxicating drinks cannot be made readily accsa* sible without the most lamentable results. " We would most respectfully implore your Excellency and your honourable Council to prohibit altogether the importation and distillation of ardent spirits for sale;'as well also the manufacture and importation of intoxicating liquors in gent)*', excepting only fof medical or for scientific purposes. The beneficial effects of Abstinence and sobriety would confined in saob a case to the mere saving of expenditures purchasing these liquors, but would save to the Government itself a very large'sum by the prevention of driroe- “ Trptin® that joyt fsse§!jeqoj‘h»<JU?e hortour-; able Legislative Council of New Zealand, Will graciously receive this token of the deep interest in the public welfare experienced by the Members of the Auckland Total Abstinence Society* ntid hoping that the issue of the present deliberations on this subject will be at least to prevent, by wise legislation, intemperance and crime, (the inseparable attendants of low duties upon ardent spirits, ) we would show our loyalty to her Majesty's Government by inculcating upon all around ns, that abstinence from intoxicating liquors and sobriety in-all things, which are some of the best incentives to respect and obedience. Subscribing ourselves in tbe name of our Chairman, her [Majesty’s most loyal and obedient Subjects, &c. &o. (Signed) « JAMES McNAlß.*' Chairman. Total Abstinence Hall, Auokland. May 23, 1844.