PROHIBITION RALLY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4884, 30 September 1925, Page 2

PROHIBITION RALLY.

REV. F. E. HARRY AT PAEROA. CLEVER, FORCEFUL SPEAKER. There was a fair attendance of the public at the Gaiety Theatre, Paeroa, on Thursday evening last to hear an address on the Prohibition movement delivered by the Rev. F. E. Harry, pastor of the Vivian Street Baptist Church, Wellington, and president of the Wellington area of the N.E. Alliance. Mr G. Buchanan presided, and seated on the stage with him were the Revs. F. B. Dobson, A. M. Costai.n, and Captain Humphrey.

Apologies for absence were received from His Worship the Mayor (Mr W. Marshall) and the Rev. R. Morgan, president of the local no-license party. The Rev. Harry proved himself, to be an exceptionally interesting and forceful speaker, and his humorous anecdotes, many of them taken from his own experience as; a preacher, were well received. It could be taken as a compliment .that even opponents of prohibition expressed admiration for the speaker, and said that his address was well worth listening to. In his opening remarks Mr Harry said that he was deeply interested in the Prohibition campaign. There was a bitter conflict being waged between the liquor trade and the moral forces of the world. The liquor traffic fight was not ,a new one, and he impressed upon his; hearers the necessity of taking the long view of the question. Such advice had been given years ago by Mr Asquith in London. The reason why he had temporarily forsaken his pulpit was because he waS a Christian man, and felt that it was hi|3 duty to fight the evils of liquor. The progress of the nations, he.maintained, was being retarded by the ravages of the liquor traffic. It was an extraordinary feature that although drink was mainly responsible for the crime and the filling of the asylums, the people licensed and countenanced the sale of spirituous liquorts on every side. It was about time some notice was taken of the evils of drink, and the irreparable harm that attended the trade, which had such tremendous power in the land.

Time and again, continued the speaker, he had challenged the supporters of “booze” to come forward and state the benefits! of th® drink trade, but never yet had his challenge been accepted. The Alliance was dealing with the breaking of a life-long 'custom, and it was! not easy to effect a change, desirable though it was. His party did not seek for reform of the trade, but sought total prohibition in the country. The trade, he said, could never be reformed, and .the party intended to get abolition of the trade in the quickest possible way. It should be remembered that the Alliance sought prohibition only by the direct vote of the people. It did not seek legislation, to achieve its object.

The speaker dealt at length with the . report of the Licensing Committee recently presented to Parliament, and deprecated the suggestion that the poll should be taken not oftener than every nine years, and that if prohibition was carried four years should elapse before it wans brought into force. Other points in the report were criticised, and he said it was a compilation containing gross impertinence .throughout. An honest medical man, continued Mr Harry, would not prescribe liquor, for the reason that scientists h,ad proved that it was a poison to the body and not a food, as was erroneously supposed. Shackleton’s party, had proved that those members who took liquor went down under the cold quicker than the teetotallers. He instanced famous, athletes who would never touch liquor, and said that the insurance companies had stated that 22 per cent of the people who were abstainers lived the longest.

Mr Harry dwelt at length, on the mortal aspects of drink,, and' said that an eminent judge of he Supreme Court of New Zealand had told him that half the cr’mes committed in the country were directly attributable to liquor. He congratulated the people of Paeroa on living in a no-license town, and said a prominent persoj had told him that Paerpa was destilb ed to become one of the most important inland towns in New Zealand. He could quite realise the possibilities, having seen the various! works and general air of solidity and prosperity in the place, and he pleaded with the audience to assist prosperity and happiness by keeping the place "dry.” The Liquor Party,* he haid, Were inately selfish, and were' only fighting the issue because the brewers’ pockets were likely to be lightened if prohibition was carried. The publicans, to his mind, were the biggest and most arrogant law-breakers in the country, and no tolerant or thinking person should condone the trade.

The Alliance, declared Mr Harry, was not out to stop the people from drinking, but to prevent the sale of liquor. No one had any right to im’pinge on the freedom of his neighbours. The revenue derived from the sale of drink, amounting to over a million pounds sterling a year, was not paid by the brewens and hotelkeepers, but by the drinking people of the country. He said that he honestly believed that .the hotelkeepers in dry areas were deliberately keeping their premises in a state of disrepair and poor accommodation was offered to the public because they wished to strengthen their claim for restoration of licenses.

He made a strong appeal, for the protection of women and children, and al'so for the assistance of the drunkard, who was too weak to help himself. He was of opinion that when liquor was invented .there was a holiday in hell. Need and poverty could not help appealing to the sane-think-ing and charitably inclined person, and if the people had consciences at all they would unhesitatingly vote out the drink curse at the forthcoming election and keep New Zealand to the fore as God’s Own Country, and make it a better and happier place in which to Live.

Prolonged applause was accorded

Mr Harry on resuming his seat The chairman called for questions from .the audience, but there was none ofrthcoming, and the meeting concluded with hearty votes of thanks to the speaker, the chairman, and the Salvation Army nßand for rendering a number of selection prior to the. meeting.