Mr Walker's Adress.

Manawatu Herald, 3 December 1896, Page 2

Mr Walker 's Adress.

. *. On Tuesday night Mr Walker gave an address in the Public Hall on Prohibition, He dwelt upon the eyila of alcoholism, and gave word pictures of the different stages of - drunkenness, which his audience appeared to readily recognise. He protested against the use of alcohol " ai a drink, owing to the products used in its manufacture haying first been brought into, what he termed, a -- state of corruption, and intimated that the late discoveries by nse ofthe microscope should set people against it. (The lecturer did not state that butter and cheese were produced by exaotly similar transformations. Mr W. S. Stewart, the headmaster of the Foxton School, took the chair, and intimated that he had been threatened that his action in doing so would be used to bis disadvantage. He knew that many ran away when the drains began to j»la/, but he was *> not one of them, and he would remain at his post at all costs. When Mr Walker had concluded hi? address, Mr Thynne asked Mr Stewart to name the persons who had threatened him, in fairness to the members of the Committee, for hB (Mr Thynne) as Chairman of the School Committee had never objtcted to his amusing himself with Good Templariara or with taking the chair at that meeting, and he did not believe a single member of the Committee had. Mi- Stewart said it was not the Chairman or any members of the Committee who had spoken to him, but two of his own personal-friends: Mr Thynne was satisfied with Mr Stewart's explanation, and remarked that he had endeavoured to make ft good deal of capital out of a conversation with two friends. Mt* Stewart then announced thai Mi- Walker would answer questions, and to those of Mr Thynne, Mr Wulkt-r, after first declining to say, afterwards admitted that he was a paid lecturer, and that the funds m excess of local expenses went into a fund, from which his salary was drawn ; and that the present meeting was looked upon as a mission meeting. Mr Walker came with a greet . reputation, which was not fulfilled. His matter was not argumentative, but denunciatory, and he appeared unable to properly control his voice, bawling rather than speaking, so that those in' the front rows were stunned with the noise. .. ■ There was a very large audience* ; .