PROHIBITION CAUSE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4484, 27 October 1922, Page 2

PROHIBITION CAUSE.

CATHOLIC ADVOCATES.

ADDRESS AT CENTRAL THEATRE. A great meeting held in the Central Theatre last evening was addressed by two Roman Catholic prohibition advocates, Mr Chas. Todd, of Dunedin, and the Rev. Father Zurcher, of America. Mr W. J. Towers occupied the chair, and briefly introduced the speakers and .asked the meeting to accord the speakers a- patient and uninterrupted hearing. Such an appeal, added the chairman, was, ne felt sure, quite superfluous where a Paeroa audience was concerned. Mr Todd said they had just completed a tour of the South Island. There,.was no doubt that the prohibition sentiment was growing stronger, and spreading. The liquor question at the present, time was a very live one, and he would urge people to carefully study the question from all aspects and then vote according to their own knowledge of the position. The speaker illustrated how there could be no half-way house in the liquor question. There was, he said, only one remedy, and that was to stamp put the trade altogether. It had often been said that New Zealanders were sober people compared with the Home Country, but, he asked, why should we not rid our beautiful country of the great drink Purse altogether ? . He said that there was no ground to fear that if prohibition was carried the finances of New Zealand would suffer. Our country was passing through a difficult time, 'and it could ill afford any vicious luxury such as the drink traffic. Drink last year, he said, had cost as much as £7.500,000 at wholesale rates, and what it had cost in retail prices, in loss of efficiency, apd in misery and crime heaven alone knew. Catholics in New Zealand need have no fear that prohibition would. deprive their Church Oif altar wine. Legislation safeguarded the right of the Churches to continue the use of wine for sacramental purposes- All the leading prohibitionists of New Zealand had declared themselves in favour of this right. Mr Todd concluded by urging the people to see that their names' were on the roll, and to do all thev possibly could to have the rolls carefully searched! and prevent bogus, names appearing on them. The Rev. Father Zurcher said that, on arriving in New* Zealand he was very surprised to learn that the people were not being given the truth about prohibition in America, but a mere caricature of it.* He said that in New York, in 1921,' under prohibition, the infant mortality rate was 71 per 1000 ; in Canada the average rate was 83 pen 1600, in Montreal it was 155, and in “poor wine-drinking France’’ it was 200. It was little wonder, he said, that America was able to save the lives of its babies’. The mothers, were enjoying more food and clothing, and more 'comfort. The babies had more milk, and the father’s took their money home instead of dissipating their earnings in the wine saloons. The speaker dealt at some length on the drug question, and qputed figures to show that the amount of drugs imported into America during 1921, since prohibition was carried, was considerably less than previously. Many people objected to prohibition because it was an interference with one’s personal liberty, but for the sake of 'hundreds and thousands of persons and families which were luined and wrecked by the liquor traffic they would readily make the sacrifice. If New Zealand got rid of the alcoholic pestilence, he said,, Australia would follow suit, and it would not be long before all Englishl-speaking countries would follow. The speaker reflerrred to the Opinions of leading Roman Catholics' on the liquor question. He explained that the meeting was pot a Catholic meeting, or under the auspices of the Catholic Church. He spoke as an American citizen in reply to the slanders which had been circulated regarding his own country. He assured his audience that the right of the Churches to obtain wine for sacramental purposes had been fully preserved in America. At the conclusion of the meeting the Rev. F. B. Dobson pioposed a hearty, vote of thanks to the speakers for their interesting and helpful addresses. This was carried by acclamation, as also was a vote of thanks to Mr Towers for presiding.