TEMPERANCE RALLY

Evening Star, Issue 22143, 25 September 1935, Page 2

TEMPERANCE RALLY

ADDRESS BY MRS MOfFAT CLOW In an address in Burns Hall last night, Mrs Moffat Clow, of Belfast, Ireland, who holds a number of responsible positions in various organisations in her own country, urged New Zealanders to increased endeavours m the matter of having Prohibition established in the Dominion. Prior to the address, the Salvation Army Citadel Band gave a number of selections, Miss Walker and Mr W. HilHker sang solos, and the Rev. J. Pringle offered up a prayer. , Mrs Bedford, president of the Otago W.C.T.U., extended a welcome to Mrs Clow, who, she said, had done effective work both in New Zealand and Australia. The mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox) said it gave him very great pleasure to preside at their meeting that night and to pay a tribute to the work of tho W'C.T.U. Movement, which for at least half a century had been to the front in every good work which had for its object the security of the home and the protection and uplifting of women. To this work many of the ablest women in the world had been devoted. In this country had all been proud of tho typo of woman who had led this movement—(applause)—with the result that the ideals of purity, temperance, and truth had been constantly kept before the minds of their women and girls. Mrs Clow came to them with a variety of offices. To name only a few, she was a past president of the Christian Endeavour Union of Great Britain and Ireland, an executive member, of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and a founder of the Ulster Union. There was one other crusade to which he should like to urge the women of New Zealand, and that was the abolition of war, the most desolating evil that had afflicted the world from the beginning of time. (Applause.) The League of Nations was powerless todaj', not because it had not ideals, but because the 66 nations which sent representatives to its Council still possessed old-world ideas. They would not take the one essential step that would prevent war—namely, abolish national armaments, and institute a programme of international armaments for the safety of the world. He visualised a great crusade in this generation, which would accomplish this purpose and thus free the world from the fear of war and save it from its fabulous costs in manhood, famine, pestilence, and wealth. (Applause.) Mrs Clow, who was received with loud applause and who proved herself a fluent speaker, said that she had been in Dunedin three months ago, and since then she had travelled most of the North Island. For the past 18 years she had been deeply interested in New Zealand’s fight against liquor and m other movements in the Dominion. It was because of that that she had broken into her holiday and cancelled her passage Home, so that she could take part in the forthcoming poll on Prohibition. She had, however, been rather disappointed at the apathy of

those who years ago were fighting for the cause. The world had been passing through troublous times, and in. New Zealand there had been a slump in spiritual. and moral ideals. The lecturer urged them to take a greater interest in this great question of Prohibition, as there was still the problem in New Zealand. The liquor trade was still responsible for more evils than any other agency in the country to-day. (Applause.) Last year little New Zealand had spent £5,700,000 _in alcoholic liquors, and that at a time when the country was suffering from an economic depression. The money thus spent had brought nothing of good but much of evil. It could have been spent in a manner which would have enriched the Dominion. The browing industry employed far fewer men, considering the amount of capital involved, than any other industry., (Applause.) Reference was made to the evils connected with the liquor traffic, but the speaker said that there had certainly been an improvement in the Old Country. In their social circles it was cocktail parties, the drinking of champagne, and so on. This was tho evil which was attacking New Zealand to-day, Mrs Clow referred to what was being done in Britain to prevent clanger through motorists taking drink before driving their cars, and said that what the Minister of Transport had done was proving a great benefit. The question which a magistrate now had to decide at Home was whether cf not a man was fit to drive a car—not whether he was drunk. The idea that alcohol was a stimulant was untrue. It was a depressant. The doctors in the great hospitals at Home to-day wex-e cutting out alcohol for the use of the patients in these institutions. ■The speaker referred to the Congress of Temperance delegates from 20 different countries held in London, presided over by Lord Astor, and said that the reports at that congress showed that many of the countries were building up a people of abstainers. Sweden had a greater number of pledged teetotallers than any other nation in Europe, and she was a fine example to their little New Zealand. Norway, Finland, and Denmark were all moving along on similar lines to those adopted in Sweden. So far as Germany was concerned, Hitler was out to create perfect physical fitness in the youth of the country, and was against alcohol. Hitler was a total abstainer and a non-smoker. Hitler wanted to build a nation of men. Italy was doing the same thing—steadily seeking to build up the youth of Italy without alcohol. Most of _ the Continental countries were moving towards _ the manufacture of non-alcoholic drinks. In Russia the people were warned not to drink vodka. The most remarkable story they had heard at the congress was from Japan. They were told that there was a wonderful wave of enthusiasm for total abstinence in Japan and that a whole division of the army had gone dry. They were going to face a now problem in New Zealand in meeting the competition from a country which was improving its conditions of labour by the practice of abstinence. As regarded America, a quite wrong impression had got about with respect to the conditions under Prohibition. No doubt there were bad things happening, hut the great middle mass of the people had been deriving great

benefits by turning their money from the liquor shops to the comforts of their own homos. They were told aUI the bad things which had happened in America. She did not believe that in the United States they would ever have had the eighteenth amendment repealed had it not been for the economic depression which had swept the country. The United States Government had been attacked just as Mr Forbes and Mr Coates were being attacked to-day—(laughter)—and the people had become panicky, and liquor had come back. The people of America, however, had now had their eyes opened. She predicted that within five to'seven years they would see a swing of the pendulum and some form of Prohibition introduced again. This was because the promises of revenue from the reinstatement of the sale of alcohol had not been fulfilled. New Zealand was the only country in the world to-day that had the privilege of voting on the question of Prohibition, and the people could, if they would, set an example that other nations would be proud to follow. (Applause.) On the motion of Adjutant Coombs, of the Salvation Army, seconded by Mrs Hiett, the Dominion president of the W.C.T.U., the speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. A vote of thanks was extended to the Salvation Army Band for its playing daring the evening.