PROHIBITION CAMPAIGN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 43, 14 November 1919, Page 10

PROHIBITION CAMPAIGN

The series of meetings being held this week under the auspicw of tlie prohibition cainuniffii committee was continued last evsnini;. The meeting at Sydney Street.Schoolroom was presided over by Mr. W. H. Weiilon, the speakers boiiiy Mr. 11. W. and Nurse Chappell. M.r. Sarase dealt with the t|iicstion froni the American experience,-pointing out in the iirst place that it was still not universally recotfiiiscfl in this country that the iiiohibition of tho liquor trade had been iiicciruorated into Hie. Constitution nf tliß I'i'.iied States, and that that gieat nation of I10,ll()0,(XlO had therefore i>:-o-prressed far beyond (he experimental etf.L'e of this ieform. A recent cable iiK'Ssase from America attributed to Jlr. Samuel Gompers the statement.that-pro-hibition had been forced on the people, and would have «' ruinous effect.' The lonir and elaborate procedure involved in brinsiiijf about the chantfe. iii tho Constitution, tins overwhelming majorities secured in nearly till Ibe Slate Legislatures, and tho low; experience the'people had liiid of tha results of jirohibitii.'ii in numeixins States, entirely disproved such . a statement. ' Mr. Siivajje mentioned some, of his own experiences in the prohibition camrtUKiis in the Stale of Michigan, particularly in the great cities oi and Clucaso. and stated that the obslvicle.? at. the outset were quite as formidable, us tluiso which lu«l to be met in New Zealand; a. fact which lent cncoiiraseiuent to those striving for prohibilion :n this country.. Niirso C'happeil, who has hao a-.long ('ii)ericn(c in England and .elsewhere of siicinl service work, spoke in an interesline inanner as to the icsults of her observations. She lunched upon the misery and (legeii'.Tacy which were, caused bv the liquor traffic, and emphasised thfl evil heritage handed down to the children of paroiits ;iddiet«i to drink. Her (xih'iwnce showed what a potent allv immorality had in liquor, jmd how immorality could not flourish in n dry counfiT n* in ii wet one. Liquor was the one great destructive force in nullifying the good inllueiices brought vo bear mi ii child in its early yeii-s, and one of Hμ most disquieting tendencies of the <inv wns the incrmsing use 'of. liquor anion!! vonns women. Mr. Heiilon, in proposing ii vote of Uiank-5 lo the speakers, gave his own RM-simal testimony that he had «lways alwlaini'd from liquor, and could fee mi benefit to be derived from its letention. Tho trad? was only licensed from year to year, and (here h-iis no obligation on the neople to perpetiiitto it if a majority thouaht it. desirable in the interests of the- -ctiunlrv to dispense with it nl.to- " Uiirins thn' e.vening Mr. A. E. .Tohiis enntrilmted several pianoforte selections of his own composition

■V. large .ind good-natured crowd gathered" at the comer of Kiehmond and Jackton Streets, l'cione, Inst night lo hear Captain Hawkins sucnk on the subject of prohibition. He was introduced by the Kev. (!. Blair. TJie speaker .set out lo deal with what he said were the proposals of Mr. Armstrong (organiser for the Moderate League) to pay the trade the sum of over ,t9,7flfl,fl{in to go out. He denied tho "statement thnt there was more ciiiiie in prohibition ti'.'.nn in licensed areas, lie quoted statistics lo show thnt in Palme.rsloii North and- Hamilton there, had Iwen in 191" considerably more convictions 'fan ill eiipht no-liceusc districts. These statements were challenged by some members of the crowd, but ti'ie speaker replied that the figures were undi.sputable. Ouesliions in abundance were asked, many "of them irrelevant, to all of which tlie speaker made apt reply.