PROHIBITION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2865, 31 March 1925, Page 3

PROHIBITION.

What was described by a Levin representative as the best meeting he had seen in Foxton of Prohibition workers and sympathisers was held in the Presbyterian schoolroom on Thursday evening last. The chair was occupied by the Mayor (Mr J. Chrystall), who briefly but warmly welcomed on to the platform the two speakers of the occasion—Mr C. R. Edmond, Dominion Organiser of the N.Z. Alliance, and Mr C. H. Poole, ex-M.P. The meeting opened with the singing of “Eight the Good Fight with all Thy Might,” after which the Rev. H. Gould, of Apiti, led in prayer. On rising to speak, Mr Edmond expressed his pleasure at being in Foxton. He referred at length to the organisation that the Affiance was perfecting, and said that the Drink Traffic would go out at the next poll if only those who wanted Prohibition would work. After all the best way to win was for each one to win someone else. He instanced the ease of Mi- R. G. Denton,,of Wellington, who was always “on the job” securing recruits. If a, man iiadn’t the half-crown for joining up with, then Air Denton provided this, from a second pocket, where he kept the half-crowns others had given him to help the cause along. “When,” said the speaker, “the Alliance has 100,000 members, then the politicians will sit up and take notice.” That the work was worth while was evident, because the Traffic went on constantly taking toll of the young life of the Dominion —2,000 children being slain by alcohol in New Zealand every year.

Mr Poole said that a lot of water had run under the bridge since he had. last visited Foxton. But he was glad to bring the remnants of liis body back again. (The speaker. it may be mentioned, looks anything hut emaciated),. Since leaving New Zealand, he had been in the j United States, where he had travelled thousands of miles and lectured, in the aggregate, to hundreds of thousands of people in all parts of the States. He could testify to the moral and material results of Prohibition in America, l'he industrial progress had been remarkable. One person in every seven had his car. You no longer saw tramps walking along . the roads —they bought an old automobile, made a tonneau for it out of benzine - cases and tins, plugged away to another part of the district in their j “Lizzie,” where they earned'money to buy more gasoline, and then chugged on to somewhere else. Mr Poole staled that he saw more drunkenness in Auckland upon arrivel there than he had seen during his long sojourn in the United States. During the evening a tasty suppex was provided by the ladies of the W.C.T.U. Songs were pleasingly rendered by Misses F. Chalk and G. Hofmann, the accompanists being Miss Peryman and Mi's Downes. Hearty votes, of thanks were accorded the speakers and all those assisting in the evening’s entertainment.