NO-LICENSE BATTLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1290, 20 November 1911, Page 5

NO-LICENSE BATTLE.

CHURCH AND THE TRAFFIC. ADDRESS BY REV. R. S. GRAY. Tlpwards of 2000 pcoplo attended at the Town Hall last night to hear an address on tho liquor question by tho Rev. R. S. Gray. Tho Ecv. W. S. Potter presided. Mr. Gray condemned the liquor traffic in terms as-unequivocal as any tempcranco advocate could possible use, yet his languago throughout his speech was temperate, and chcsen in the best of taste. Probably be«ULso it wns a Sunday evening meeting he devoted a good deal of attention to what he considered ought to bo tho attitude of Christian churnhes towards tho Trade. The audience appeared to bo wholly sympathetic. Ho told how ho had had an interview with Mr, Loo Myors (a member of the Campboll and Bhrenfreid firm), of Aucklaud. Mr. Mj;crs said he beliovcd that otic of two things would happen—cither that tho No-License party would beat tho Trade by a large margin on the national prohibition issue, or that the Trade would beat thorn by such a large margin that tlicy would fight no more. He (Mr. ii Y'i promptly assured Mr. Myers that ho had not been introduced to the pwtv, ami that ho knew nothing of tho Spirit of the party if ho held any such Vt t • ® ulTent ' OT °r compromise by tlie No-Licause party was impossible. In this wuutry tho Trade was a comparatively harmless business by comparison with the Trade iu older lands. No man who had not seen it had any conception of tho degradation that was being wrought l>y this trade in the lives of men and women who had bccomo its victims, and hi tho lives of their children. And also vo in New Zealand had no conception of Ihe political and civic power exercised by the saloon in tho older countries. What nuulo the slums iu England?— Drink. Nine-tenths of the work done by t'.io institutional churches in England for tho poor in the slums was in relief of poverty, soualor, and wretchedness caused by drink. The people of England had licensed this trade so long that it waa possible now to seo there the legitimate issue of tho trade. Ho had frequently Been sights that had made him sick. Not only were men being degraded, but women were degraded also. He had seen women standing in tlie streets of London outside tho public-houses drinking— standing iu the street because the law did not allow them to take their ohildrea into tho hotels. If tho people of New Zealand could see these thing?, as man and . woman who worked in tho London slums saw them, they would not let this trade live a day longer than December 7 iioxt. In every country men were seeking to set their nations free from the shackles of tho drink tyranny, and everywhere they looked to New Zealand for the result erf the fight here. As tho Church stood for all that was good and true,, and for the uplifting of humanity, so the Trade stood for the ruin and degradation and misery of everyone who touched it. The men who wore in tho trade were worse degraded than thofe whom they were ruining. i| 16ro were thoso who said that the I Church ought to leave tho liquor question alone, because tho No-License movement ivas a political movement. He ni'iintaincd that it was not a political iimveiiieut. _ It was political now in one jP''flse, but it was so because it was first u moral movement that found its spring in tho spirit of Jesus Christ, as made known by the Church. But if the fight was to be won in Wellington it would bo necessary for the No-License people to do something more than feel and pray about it. They must try to induce others to voto with them. 1 To those in* doubt as to whether No-Licenso was a right thing he quoted the saving of tlie Ancstle Paul. If doubtful people took tho same attitude, thev must come to n similar conclusion—"We will license m more drink while the world lasts." In every country Prohibition would m°an immeasurably greater happiness and prosperity, ami moral cleanliness, but if it meant that we should lose all the revenue and the other, things. which,.the, liquor people, said wo sho'ufd Use,"should «e not still say that tho spirit of Jesus Christ compelled us, whatever the sacrifice, to declare against tho traffic, in order that our weak - brethren "and 'sisters might b? saved from this peril and this curse. So he asked all who heard him to declare their, judgment on the drink traffic by striking out tho top line on both papers. To-night. Mr. Gray, who bas been on an exteaded visit to America, will address a meeting in the Town Hall, at whicb be will tell of what be saw of Prohibition in force in certain of the American States, and especially in Maine