Lecture on Prohibition.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 109, 5 November 1896, Page 2

Lecture on Prohibition.

A lecture on the above subject was delivered in the Drill Hall last evening by the Rev Mr Munro, of Rangiora. There was a very fair audience, and the chair was taken by Mr Catthew. The proceed^ ings commenced with a hymD " Strike out tbe top line." On being introduced, the Rev Mr Munro said he had nothing but a feeling of pleasure in facing his audience that uight in the interests of Prohibition. He said he had just come from delivering a series of lectures in Taranaki, and that the Havvera electorate was fully expected to carry total Prohibition ; while the other electorates, if not doing so, would be very close to it. The Wanganui electorate waß considered doubtful. He said the Prohibition Party had now become a mighty voting power in the land, and had adopted as their battle-song the hymn with which the proceedings started this evening, viz : " Strike out the top line." The Prohibition Party were now looking forward to give New Zealand the lead in carrying out this question in the British Empire. After three years agitation, they had now a party ready to vote solid for total Prohibition. Half of Otago, he said, would carry this question, as well as several of the Canterbury electorates. All the Prohibitionists want is the right to say by a bare maiority (not a three-fifths majority as proposed by the Government) whether the people shall have a continuance of licenses in their districts, or whether they shall have any licenses at all. The lecturer read extracts to show that Lord Coleridge (late Lord Chief Justice of England), Judge Connolly and the late Judge Richmond hod stated that through the i liquor traffic came the vast majority of crime and insanity existing at tbe present time. The present Archbishop of Canterbury was a Prohibitionist and staunch teetotaller, and the head of the Roman Catholic Church in America had declared war to the death against the liquor saloons. The speaker said that when in conversation with the Inspector of Liquors in Rangiora recently, the latter said he had tested 65 samples of liquor from different hotels in Canterbury, and he had not found one bad sample. Mr Munro said that drink interfered with the health and happiness of the people, and that medical authorities had now declared against its use, holding it to be a deadly poison. The lecturer quoted several leading authorities to show that the wine used at the Lord's supper in the olden days was not intoxicating, also that the wine made by our Lord at the wedding feast in Can a was unfermented. Mr Munro said Hhat a doctor residing not 100 miles from Feilding had told him that there was not one man in 500 but took too much liquor, and he (th 6 lecturer) held that it was useless to attempt to regulate a traffic which could not f be regulated, and the best thing to do was to end it. The lecturer said that he believed if Prohibition was carried tho police would do their duty and suppress any sly grog selljpg that would result. He quoted Sjey'era} passages of scripture in his contentions agaiest $fo c Km 0 ' an 3 a ? fce F narrating several interesting and apprqpriate anecdotes he advised all present to vote for Prohibition and " strikeout the top line." . ' Questions were invited on trie subject, as<* Jj?ave given to speakers on the op* posite §^de of the question, but nobody attempted so.' to do. ' 4>^e of thanks io the lecturer ■fiitftieff '&y acg!an?atiqn, and tbg usual -'•tttSOi fS &§ gfeaif fccFinmaled the I com^- • ■: 1 .. ■-■-„ meeting.