BAND OF HOPE, CITY BRANCH.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 608, 21 December 1871, Page 2

BAND OF HOPE, CITY BRANCH.

At the meeting held on Tuesday last a number of cadets in uniform, some of them bearing arms, made an unexpected appearance. Towards the close of the meeting the chairman, Mr Edwards, made special allusion to their presence, and stated that he supposed they were in a course of training with the view that when they arrive at mature age they may be effective in defending their country against any force that may threaten it. He thought however if our rules manifested common prudence no enemy would come to disturb us, and consequently that their services would never be required in that capacity. There was, however, an enemy in our very citadel, which had been plying its destructive agency from the commencement of the colony, whose victims were daily falling around us in such numbers as to alarm at least a portion of the community, and induce it to lift up a standard against this enemy in the several localities. Under this standard he should be glad to see them take service, and continue faithful to the motto emblazoned upon it —" abstinence from alcoholic, drinks." By taking this course they would effectually defend themselves and the colony from its most insidious and destructive enemy. At the close of the meeting ten cadets and five others signed the pledge.