PROHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 6724, 5 October 1885, Page 4

PROHIBITION.

At the Saturday evening meeting of the D.Y.M.C.A. Mr Fred Fulton gave an interesting lecture on the subject of prohibition of the liquor traffic by the State. In his opening remarks he pointed out the fallacy of supposing that prohibition was too great an interference with the liberty of the subject. Every law was really contrary to liberty, and our present legislation acknowledged the necessity of repressing the facilities for drinking as much as possible. The publican's trade, however, even with the restrictions placed on it, was dangerous at all places, and in all times. Without customers there was no trade, and where the customers were there was the danger. Exqrcise, then, the evil spirit by the wand of total prohibition law. The objection that by removing temptation they destroyed virtue was based upon an ignorance of the real nature and needs of man. _ He only proposed the removal of one special temptation ; all natural temptations would still be left. They all knew that temptation far more frequently promoted vice than virtue, and it never ended in goad | save under certain conditions of balance and counterpoise, the existence oi which the liquor traffic rendered all but nugatory. He did not aim at making people sober by legislative enactment, but he demanded play for the faculties of society, so that those who would work out the high purposes of life might not be hindered by those who would not. The present restrictions on the liquor traffic were probably insufficient, and the abolition of publichouses was one of the most practical and efficient means of real radical reform. There was about the drinking system a prodigality of mischief, a (seduction, a virulence, and a fermenting fecundity in the reproduction of vice which was without parallel. To consider what were termed the rights of the publican was the veriest nonsense. The very term 3 of his license assumed that the man licensed to carry on the trade was exposed to strong temptations to foster practices inimical to social welfare but profitable to himself. The fact was that publicans had no rights as publicans. No man had a right to do evil —much less had he a right for the mere convenience of pleasure-seeking men. Was not licensing a species of prohibition—partial prohibition as regarded places, but still real prohibition in respect of persons ? Could anybody anywhere sell strong drink ? No ; only certain persons were permitted to do this, and even they were prohibited as regarded the place where and the time when they should sell. Why did not the unsuccessful applicants for licenses nake an outcry about their rights being invaded, and call the people to their rescue ? A free State was bound to legislate according to its own light, and not according to the ignorance of itß selfish and stupid members. The liquor traffic kept within the living temple waste matter and thus defiled it; it drained away the conservative forces that resisted the inroads of disease; it obstructed the natural ventilation of the vital chambers, and loaded the blood with poisonous elements; it lowered the flame and temperature- olHfe, and expended the comforts of -the" people. The business therefore ought tojbe proscribed as a nuisance. The lecturer was sometimes asked if the number of licensed houses were reduced would the temperance folk be satisfied ? and he answered " Yes, but not wholly ; I prefer, however, a half-loaf to no bread at all." The number of licensed houses in the City of Dunedin was far too large even for financial reasons to the great majority of the licensed establishments themselves, as well as the distillers and brewers. He was asked, too, whether a lesser number would diminish the temptation, and to that also he answered yes. Did they ever notice the warning "Paint" posted on a door that they did not test the matter with the finger to see whether it was not dry enough to take down the sign? How often had they felt thirsty or felt " like taking something" only because they were in front of, or adjacent to, a public-house? The embarrassments of thousands brought on by the drinking fashions and their tendency would be prevented by an abandonment of the liquor. The removal of the drink from the table, the sideboard, or the cellar would be the removal of many a fatal temptationtemptation to servants, to friends, to visitors, and above all, to the young men of the family. Let teetotalism spread and its effect would be most manifest in connection with all our institutions. A sober man became a reader and a thinker, and felt that he should do some good for his fellow - creatures. In this warfare for humanity they had need of patience. WE" "berforce toiled through one -whole generation ere the British Parliament declared the slave trade to be piracy. Opinions grew slowly. Comrades in this sublime warfare, they were encompassed about with a great cloud of witnesses; humanity beckoned them onwards. They trod upon the dust of heroes as they advanced. White-robed love floating in mid-air before them led them to the conflict. The shouts of the ransomed

were in their tents, and the voice of praise made music amid their banners. Let them preßß forward with their age. Let them weave a bright link in the history of their century. Let them lie down to their rest nearer the goal of human perfection.: Let them find in their toils an ever-exciting stimulus—an ever fresh delight. So should their later annals "be written in the charactars of millennial glory ;• so should their posterity be cheered by that sun which should shine with a sevenfold lustre as the light of seven days." At the conclusion of the lecture several persons took the pledge of total abstinence.