ADDRESS BY MRS. KINETON PARKES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 161, 2 April 1919, Page 10

ADDRESS BY MRS. KINETON PARKES

Yesterday afternoon a meeting held in the Concert Chamber of the Town Il'iil! was addressed by Mrs. Xiriotoii Parkes, a speaker well known in England and in New Zealand, dealing with the question of prohibition. The Rev. Mr. Sykes presided.

In the course of her address Mrs. Kine. ton Parkes said that people had been urged not to vote no-license because it begot worse evils than that of drunken, ness. "What arc these evils?" asked ¥n. Parkes. "No one will tell us." She 1-ad I come to the conclusion that they must be like the notice that one sometimes came across fastened to gates or private property, "Beware of the dog," which , was sometimes nothing but camouflage, since there often was ho dog. Tho noticft was put up merely to protect property. So it was in this case. It had been stated that it was quite impossible to make, people sober or stop drinking by legislation, and yet, go conflicting were thu statements made by the advocates of tho liquor party, one of the lattcr's speakers bad refer red to the fact that a certain form of legislation in England had reduced drinking by 75 per cent. Yet another statement that bore upon this latter point was made- by a. speaker belonging i to the camouflaged Moderate Party, that State ownership in England had _ been very successful and had reduced drinking by 12 per cent. As a matter of fact it could not bo said that State ownership had been tried in England. Only ono district had tried it; but what' olio thought tho speaker must have had in his mind was the formation of the Liqhor Control Board, which had been established some ten or fourteen months after the outbreak of war. The success which had attended its work was in itself an i-.rgu. meat for prohibition, for if drunkenness could bo reduced by 72 per cent, by the reduction .of the hours in which liquor could be sold, what would jiot be done by prohibition? It had to be remembered that we had to compete with America, and America had recognised that drink impaired tho efficiency of the people. Though the war had been won, there was still need for efficiency, the speaker argued. If every ounce of efficiency were needed to win the war in Europe and the East, was there not ne»l of even greater efficiency for .solving Iho great problems of reconstruction with which the nations j wero. faced? America was of the opinion that there was, and.so she had carried prohibition. Prohibition was not tho panacea for every evil, but it was the initial step for combating them. The money that was spent upon tho upkeep of our gaols, our homes, our hospitals, our asylums would not bo needed to anything like the same exlent were there prohibition. During the war people hud learned that if we were to win they bad to subordinate the personal view for tho the nation, and that need still existed. It meant a great sacrifice to the moderate drinkers to bo asked to deprive themselves of their wine, their spirits, or their beer, and sho did not. belittle that sacrifice. Bui; it was a time for broad views, of grasping what such a reform woilid mean to our country.

A vote of thanks to Mrs. Kyneton Parkes for her address was carried.