YOUNG PEOPLE ASSIST

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 4

YOUNG PEOPLE ASSIST

W.C.T.U. Members Attend Third Day Session The third day of the annual Women’s Christian Temperance Union convention now being held in St. John’s Hall, Wellington, began with a devotional service arranged and conducted by the “Y” branch of the convention. The address was given by Miss Brittain; and vocal items were presented by other members. Business included discussions on the cradle roll, and legal and parliamentary reports which were adopted. Many questions as to the understanding of legal points were put to Miss Henderson, who answered promptly.

The first of a series of informative talks on “Some aspects of the liquor traffic” was given by Miss Henderson, whose subject was “Expenditure in Cash.” Treating the matter entirely from the economists’ viewpoint, the speaker dealt with revenue from the sale of liquor.

Quoting Year Book figures, Miss Henderson argued that on the most conservative estimate, the saving in the cost now involved in the administration of justice in the national means used for the preservation of health, physical and mental, in wages lost, in efficiency constantly impaired under existing conditions; and the loss to the community through early deaths would more than compensate for the so-called loss in revenue. It was claimed by the speaker that from the cost to the community of the effects of alcohol during the past 10 years, 43,978 houses, of an average value of £l5OO, could have been built. These would have gone far to solve housing problems.

A striking statement made by Lord Bledisloe was quoted, to the effect that one pound’s worth of barley sold for brewing purposes brought the farmer a return of 1/2. Spent in feeding pigs, the same amount brought a return of 16/6.