MRS. HELEN BARTON.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1294, 24 November 1911, Page 9

MRS. HELEN BARTON.

HER LOVE FOR CHILDREN. AN ASTOUNDING DECLARATION. ME. JUSTICE I'RING'S JUDGMENT. (Extracted from "Fair Play," 17 March, 1911.) IN Maroh of this year Mrs. Barton, a lady employed by tho Prohibitionists to lecture on their behalf in New Zealand, sued a newspaper in Australia for libel and sought to Tecover £2000. Sho got £5 and had to pay her own costs, the Judge, Mr. Justice Pring, of Sydney, where tho case was heard, saying tho case ought never to havo been brought into Court. Howover, that fact in the case is not what commands attention from a Prohibitionist viewpoint.'' It is Mrs. Helen Barton's amazing statement as to what would bo her attitude to a dying child. Mr. Shand, K.C., had Mrs. Helen Barton under cross-examination. Mrs.-Barton said sho had been a Prohibitionist all her life, and would go as far as. to fay that liquor of any kind should not bo taken under any circumstances ■ whatever. Mr. Shand:'But- tho advocacy of Prohibition does not necessarily involve .abstinence at all times in those who follow it? Is that your view? Mrs. Barton: I believe in Prohibition, out and out. •, Mr. Shand: I suppose you will admit that those who advocate Prohibition do not all go to the extent you go and | refuse to admit tho use of liquor under any circumstances? Mrs. Barton: I have nothing to do with what other people think, Mr. Shand: Answer my question. I am asking what you know. Mrs. Barton: I don't advocate it even as a medicine. Mr. Shand: If. a doctor was treating your favourite child and he snid: "I can save the child's life by giving it brandy," would you give it any brandy? Mrs. Barton: No. I would not. Mr. Shand: You would let it die? Mrs. Barton: Yes, I would. His Honour: You would not give brandy to a dying child when brandy was recommended by a doctor? Mrs. Barton: No, I would not. His Honour: Are you married? Mrs. Barton: I have been a widow for fifteen, years. His Honour: Have you any children? Mrs. Barton: Nine children. His Honour: Well, I might inform you that if you refused to do it, and the child died you would be guilty of manslaughter.

-Now, tho Prohibitionists have engaged .Mrs. Burton at, it is said, a high salary to disseminate her views throughout New ■Zealand. They accept tho responsibility, but surely tho less bigoted will repudiate their agreement with all of Mrs. Barton's opinions. To save the Dominion from being under the domination of those holding Mrs. Barton's views, (he . women voters will strike out the bottom • lines on both ballot papers. THE JUDGE'S REMARKS. Mr. Justice Pring, in tho course of his summing up in the case, said: Tlie plaintiff, Mrs. Barton,, advocates not only total abstinence, but prohibition. ' She would not even use brandy to save a person who would otherwise die. I hopo there are not many in the community *vho hold, the same views. A very largo-mass ;'of thinking people in, this' community do 'not believe in total abstinence, ' and""aro wise enough to believe that everything given to us by the Creator may be put to a good use. Used properly, theso things are beneficial, and the evil' lies in their abuse. I hear people proclaiming loudly against liquor, and I often wonder whether they aro not abusing sdme other gift of the Creator. It is just as disgusting (0 gorge food as it is to follow intemperance in the drinking of liquor. We find that Mrs. Barton • has come out here for the purpose of taking part in a No-License campaign. Apparently she herself in her public addresses is not alone attacking other people.- She has called every hotel in this country a den of infamy and iniquity. That is languago one cannot excuse. It is going too far' altogether. By accident, as she says, she called down God's curse on a Bishop. Accident or no accident, sho called down a curse on Bishop Slretch. Wo find that she is a woman who is not above slandering other people.' ...

This is straight, ont-spoken, and just. It needs no comment; it confirms what so frequently has, been said by thoso opposed on the highest and sanest grounds to No-Licenso and Prohibition. But the Prohibitionists are paying Mrs. Barton to spread her views in New Zealand, and she is doing this for the purpose of having those views established here. We cannot think that the men, and especially the women, will agree to volo as Mrs, Barton bids them.

[The Prohibitionists are challenged to .deny the truth and accuracy .of this report.]*