WAIPAWA. TEMPERANCE LECTURE

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1549, 10 February 1874, Page 110

WAIPAWA. TEMPERANCE LECTURE

BY THE jjL FOX. Wm l mou A coebespondßnt.] pns Kechabite Hall was well filled 011 Saturday night by au attentive audience of the friends of temperance, to hear the Hon. W. Fox, who may be justly termed the great champion of the cause iu New Mr John Harding, was elected to the chair, and in the cOpirse'. of a few appropriate remarks, said that he had great pleasin - e-in»~infcTOduoing*'Mr*»Fox«to them on that occasion. He had known that gentleman for nearly thirty years, as one of the leading men of the Colony; and latterly he had known him as a great advocate of the good cause of temperance, which they all had at heart. But he was especially gratified to be able to present him to them that night as a lecturer, because'he knew that a gentleman of his position in society and undoubted ability would be a great accession to the ranks of those who fought for the good cause of temperance. Therefore he would no longer take up the time of the meeting, but beg leave to introduce the Hon. Mr Fox. The Hon. W. Fox then rose amidst great applause, and said—Ladies and Gentlemen: I ought perhaps'to apologise to you for addressing you at all, as it is not my custom to intrude myself in any public meeting ; yet I never refuse an opportunity when it offers v of addressing a meeting on the subject of total abstinence. I ought to have been here before, but my home is a long way from here—in fact, I might almost say that it is on the other- side of the Island. But lam glad to say that we have now got an excellent road from one side of the Island to the other, which the fact of my being here to-night proves. I think it would be difficult now since that road has been made to tell whether Hawke's Bay belonged to Wellington or Wellington to Hawke's Bay. But, f think you all agree with me, that no excuse is necessary on this occasion, for addressing you. on the important subject upon which I mean to speak to you tonight. Temperance is the great question of the age; It is fast assuming this shape and [form; that we must either put this drunkeness down or it will put us down. I will give you the views of some of the men of the highest positions in society... in England upon this subject. Two of them are of the highest authority. The one. is Mr Biicej Home Secretary iu the Imperial Government, and the other Mr Buxton of the e-reat brewing firm'of

Buxton and Co., and they both agree that, unless steps are taken to check the torrent of drunkeness, that it will inevitably bring social and moral degradation on the people, increase crime, and undermine tne f social fabric; and it has been. shown by these facts of Mr Bruce, by committees of both Houses of Parliament, and by petitions pouring in from all parts of the country to the British Parliament, the : recklessness and moral degradation which has arisen from the drinking habits of the people. Mr Charles Buxton was a member of the largest firm in the world, he was a young man who had distinguished himself in his university, but he died at an early age, and he regretted not having closed his manufactory, and.given up his connexion with the liquor trade. Wars, famine, and pestilence, are the great scourges of the human kind, but they are not half so great as drunkards. It is in vain we try to reform society when the

people win arinK. it is intoxication which fills our jails and work-houses. It is the great curse of our countrymen, .which will ruin both body and soul. These were Mr Buxton's words, and his great aim was, until his death, to study the means of checking.druukenness/ Now 1 think there is no man or wotiiau in this room will dissent from these opinions expressed by him. His loss was great; if he had lived he would no doubt have closed up his brewery, as he knew it was a means of bringing great evil on his couniry. People talk of the drinking habits of the day, and so forth, but they have no idea of the enormous number of deaths {which occur annually from drink alone. A' few facts and. figures will place the matter before you in a very startling light. When I first began to speak on the subject I had no idea of the extent of the drinkiug habits of the day. I had seen drinking men, I had sat on the Bench, and I had punished drunkards; but I had until lately, no proper knowledge of the subject. How many poor drunkards do you think lose absolute control of themselves, and lose their own time, bring misery to their hearths and homes, enfeeble their body, destroy their minds, and endanger their souls—men who may be called habitual drunkards, how many of this class do you think there are in England. I will tell you: 600,000, Yes there are 600,000 poor degraded drunkards, at this,moment in the old country The life of a drunkard, in the London Insurance offices, is worth 10 years purchase, and the number of persons who die annually from : the effects of drink are no less than 60,000 souls. 60,000 people go down to their grave annually from the effects of; this daily poison. What a sad loss this is to the country, and what a forcible argument-against this pernicious traffic.! (Applause.) In New Zealand the numbers are not less, taking the same proportionate calculation. There are 5,000 habitual drunkards in this country at this veiy minute; we are bringing "in shiploads of drink, we are importing emigrants, at a cost to the. country of £25 per head; we areborrowiug money, and yet we allow spo ( persons to die yearly from the effect's'of drink, and their, children are left to become street'arabsj and 1 their wives are penniless and their homes ; are miserable. Now he calculated that every public house in this country, supports at least, two habitual drunkards. And there arc 3,000 licensedpublichouses in thiscountry, therefore there are 6,000 habitual drunkards. By these I mean those who are totally lost, those who have lost all reason and sense of shame. This is not an occasion when I mean to take any high flights, but rather to state solid facts. Now it is acknowledged by the London Times and other public journals, that the enormous ■ sum of £130,000,000 sterling was spent last year in intoxicating drinks. Why the whole expenditure of all the departments of the Imperial service, amount to only £80,000,000 per year, including army, navy, interest on national debt, and all other services. But the national expenditure of the greatest country in the world amounts to nothing, compared to the enormous value of. the alcoholic drinks consumed by the people. In New Zealand we receive in hard gold for duty on drink; alone, the sum of £430,000; but the actual value of the drink consumed yearly, is much more than our annual revenue., We spend yearly in drink alone, more than would make a road from the North Cape to Wellington, aud,

three cross roads from coast to coast. But I might multiply instances, and build fact on fact to show you the fearful waste of money which this drinking habit encourages amoug the people. But it would be all to no .purpose, the evil will continue ,so long as the liquor traffic continues to be a legal one. And look at the way in which the working men of this colony, the bone and sinew of the country, spend the chief part of their earnings in drugs. I have had men working for mc who spend £, 1 every week in drink alone. There is another system mentioned by Mr Trollope in his late work, called " lambing down;" it .is done in this way—the shepherd, we will say for instance, with his year's wages, amounting to £4O or £SO per year, betakes himself to the nearest public houso, and the publican charges him in his little bill at the end of the week—Monday, 76 glasses, Tuesday, 65 glasses, and so on through the week ; taking care to keep him drunk all the time until his money is done. And then he goes back to his work, and another hard year's toil; this is called " lambing down." There is one argument, that is frequently advanced against, total abstinence, and that is, moderation ; people say Why don't you drink moderately? My friends, you cannot keep irp the habit of moderation, it grows with time, until at length you become a drunkard. I heard " of a young man in Scotland who was addicted to drink, and, who on being rated by a clergyman about. his bad habit, and told that ho ought to drink in moderation, and:know when he had enough, replied that "he knew when he had none, and he .knew when he had too much; but he never knew when he had enough." And thus it /is with, the moderate drinker, he . cannot tell when he has had enough, and he ends generally in a drunkard. I have often thought to myself what wore the thoughts and feelings of a publican on Saturday night while he is counting over the shillings in his till. I wonder if ho ever thinks of the sin and misery .to the community that those shillings have purchased. Oh my friends, whatia trast there is between the Saturday night of the drunkard and the'' cd'tter's Saturday night described by Burns.. The publican closes his shop on Saturday night, or Sunday, with the impression'that ho is doing well; but a day c-f closing will come with him yet—a day of reckoning will be at hand. I respect the publican personally, but I pity him. I Jpity drunkards of all kinds, but I pity th? pudlican more than all, for being led away by any hope of gain to sell this pernicious scourge. And in we succeed in our effort to abolish this curse, there is not one who would thank us more than the publican. Now I hope I do not weary you, my friends, but I have a few more words to say before I have done. I think there are none in this : robm who will not admit that the facts and figures which I have stated are something; enormous,; , ; and .we-cannot stand ;>idly by and do' nothing to check this great evil. It is extending in our social system, and it is getting greater than it was. Many persons will tell you that the greatest remedy for this is religion. I admit that the Christian religion has the power to do it; but it cannot do it under the present social system ; and it is a fact that in the present day our churches entirely fail to stamp out the evil. They are not qualified to check it; they'do not make it a church question ; they leave it to individual systems to do what ought to be done by the government. Religion, which is allpowerful in itself, is not powerful enough to grapple with this question, and this, fact is is well known by the Churches themselves. We are told that education will do it; but only a Rechabite education will succeed ; not an ordinary education. The nations which are best educated are Scotland, Prussia, and America ; but in these countries' education has done very little to check this bad system. We have seen the best educated men addicted to this habit, from the peers of the realm to the leaders of fashion in Belgravia, from the reverend Bishop to the learned lawyer, and some of these the most degraded of drunkards; so we see that education will not keep people from being drunkards. Places of amusement will not do it; these raoes that are got up are ouly done for the publicans ; these great cricket matches, and all those other amusements are generally for

his benefit. You say, let us have instructive amusement, but 1 that will not do. Take Liverpool for example, it has got forty places of instructive amusement, but it has got seven thousand five hundred.and forty public houses, which counteract all the benefit those other institutions might do anldng the people. Drunkeness and crime are 80 rife in Liverpool, that it is called the black spot on the Mersey. Now Mr Chairman, the only way in my opinion to get at the root of the evil is by act of Parliament. In England there four hundred acts of Parliament relating to public houses. These acts are for making men sober, by restricting the hours for opening and closing, 'and so on. But they will not do; so long as public houses are legal, so loiig will the evil continue. Tli •proper direction for legislation, on the siiji ject is to strike at the root of the evil, and placelhe licensing in the hands of tin'people. But, 1 it will be said you carnot force a man to be sober by act of Pari in ment—it would be tresspasing on privat' liberty. But why make him drunk l>y act of Parliament by making those houses legal? ; Ho\v if two thirds of the people of this room wanted a public house, and one third did not'; 'would it be trespassing On to make the voice Of the two-thirds ' the law in this matter?' Such.'is . the principle of the' Permissive Bill. ' But we' are 1 told that if -the trade were made illegal, we would spoil' the revenue, and ruin the Chancellor of 'the Exchequer, and that the condition of the country could not afford it. \ Such an argument is ridiculous, 1 for if you tax me heavily as •a drunkard to support the revenue, how muoh better .would I Be able to bear taxation as a sober man. The suppression of crime, according to Mr Justice Gresson, is costing the country £90,000 per annum. If we were sober, we should not require to be taxed for the suppression of crime to any great extent. They say, if you stop the legitimate public-house, you will open a way for the sly grog shanty. That will not happen—you need not fear it. The thing has been tried in Great/Britain. • In thirteen; hundred parishes, there are rip such things as public-houses; the result being'that'the people are sober, simply because there are no temptationstod ruri.kenriess thrown in their way.' '.Now' we have been trying for a'long time to bring about this'Jstateiof things in New."Zealand 1 by the passing of the Permissive' lecturer then sketched the difficulties undei' which he-labored during the passing-of the bill, and concluded a very able lecture by reminding the people'.that they had it in their own ; sower; fromi.the Ist (April, 1874, to close any or all of the public-houses in a'district. He reminded them'that the power rested With them', and not with the Government, and he implored them to take the pens in their .hands,, and ■.checkthe great evil that was polluting society. [The able lecturer then sat dovyn, amidst tlnmders of ' ' ''""

, A; vote of thanks to flip Hon. Mr Fox having beeu moved by the Rev. K.Taylor, andcarried unanimously, the meeting terminated. : " ,; ■■ ''"■ •''