PROHIBITION RALLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 232, 1 October 1928, Page 5

PROHIBITION RALLY.

GATHERING XN TOWN w*T.t.

ADDRESSES BY OVERSEAS VISITORS.

His reasons for championing the cause of prohibition were given by Mr. T. Blood worth in an address yesterday afternoon, at a prohibition rally held in the Town Hall, and over which Mr. J. W. Shaw presided. Mr. Bloodworth said that it waa his first appearance on the prohibition platform, although he had been a total abstainer all his life. After thought he had come to the decision that nobody in public life should refuse to take either one side or the other in so important an issue. Personal prohibition, said Mr. Bloodworth, was the safest and cheapest way, but there were many who voted prohibition and yet were not total abstainers. They had lost part of their freedom. Liberty was man's greatest possession, and history did not show one instance when the liquor trade had stood on the side of liberty. To-day the struggle for economic and industrial liberty was perhaps becoming the longest and bitterest yet, and the speaker could not see that the liquor trade was likely to take its stand with the Labour partv in that struggle. Mr. Bloodworth proceeded to criticise some of the trade's advertisements. The basis of all British law, he said, was government in accordance with the will the majority. If prohibition was an interference with the liberty of the subject, it was not as great an interference as the continuance of the trade. The country could not hold fast to liberty and hold fast to liquor at the same time. The stand that he was taking he was satisfied was the stand that the Labour movement should take. However, all in the ranks of Labour were not agreed, and everybody was entitled to his or her opinion. The case for the Xew Zealand Alliance in connection with the allegations against the Prime Minister re the failure to arrange & pair for the Hon. Mr. Xosworthy for the third reading of the Licensing Bill, was stated by Mr. C. R. Edmond, general secretary of the Alliance. He also explained the policy the Alliance adopted, as regards candidates for Parliament. Questions were submitted to them in writing, and the candidate's answers were published. If he did not reply that fact was published. The Alliance did not deal in secret pledges. An appeal to the young people was made by Miss Isobel McCorkindale, educational secretary of the W.C.T.U. in Australia. She gave a brief outline of the work which was being done by the youth of England, Canada, France, and Germany. The youth movement was due to youth becoming more scientific. There never was a finer set of young people in the history of the human race than that to be found to-day, in every country of the world. The finest liberty was brain and body at its best to choose between the issues of life. The final speaker was the Rev. R. J. Patterson, of Armagh, Ireland, who, about 20 years ago, formed the "Cateh-My-Pal" movement. In a short address, in which he recounted the history of the movement, Mr. Patterson made a great impression on his audience by his oratory and his Irish humour. He advocated the educating of the individual opinion for the purpose of gaining a national Christianised conscience. Plans for the campaign were discussed at a special convention under the auspices of the New Zealand Alliance in Auckland on Saturday. Mr. J. W. Court presided over a gathering which included the Hon. Simon Hickey, M.L.C., of Xew South Wales. The general secretarv gave an address on Parliament and the Licensing Bill, and the Rev. G. Jackson spoke on campaign plans.