THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 689, 25 July 1914, Page 2

THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

IMPORTANT MEETINGS AND EMINENT SPEAKERS FOR KING COUNTRY. (Contributed). In view of the prominence the King Country has occupied relative to the liquor question recently, and the agitation that has been engineered b$ a section of tha community that is exceedingly anxious to Bee licenses established in the proclaimed area: the Prohibition party ia sending a strong team of its ableßt and moat influential sdvocates to address meetings of both Europeans and Maoris, and to collect evidence bearing on the local conditions of this vexatious question. The par!y will consist of Mr Wesley Spragg, of Auckland, tha Rev. Jno. Dawson, who are both wsll-knuwn as the president and secretary respectively of the-New Zsalar.d Alliance; Mr H. D. Bedford, M.A., LL M„ of_.Dunedin, barrister, lecturer on Economics fit the Otago Univerity, us spnckir v;f great ability and recognised authority cm p.ccial and economic questions; the Rev. Win. Gittos, who Wes for many years gen-

ersl superintendent of the Wesleyan Maori Mission, ami who in his palmiest days, had perhaps more influence jver certain Maori tribes than other European; the Rev. F. Bennett, of Rotorua, a very abls and powerful Maori Bpeaker; and the Rev. T. G. Hammond, Superintendent of the Methodist Union to the Taranaki Natives.

The party will hold, meetings at Taumarunui for both Maoris and pakehas to-day and will arrive here to-morrow. The Reva. Gittoa and Bennett will hold a Maori service on Sunday morning.

Mr Bedford and Revs. Dawson and Hammond Will visit Otorohanga tomorrow afternoon. To-morrow night a meeting wi'l ba held in the Empress Theatre, Te Kuiti, at which Mr Bedford and the Rev. P. Bennett will be the principal speakers. Mr Bedford may be expected to give a lucid and sane exposition of the effect of the liquor traffic on the national revenue, and Mr Bennett will deal with its relationship to the Maori race. The Mayor will occupy the chair. .* A meeting of Maoris will be held at the Maori House, when tho agitation for the annulment of the Roho Potae proclamation will be discussed.