The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1886 TEMPERANCE ADVOCACY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1637, 17 February 1886, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17 , 1886 TEMPERANCE ADVOCACY.

At a very large and enthusiastic meeting held it) Wellington on v Monday evening Mr Glover made a very earnest appeal to his audience, and more especially to the women to bestir themselves m the cause of temperance. He said that what struck him during his re- ; cent visit to America was the intense earnestness of the women. At the Presidential election it was the women of America who rah the candidates, and he wanted to see the mothers, wives, and sisters of Wellington run their husbands, brothers, and sweethearts to the poll to vote for the temperance candidates. He did not know what the Women's Christian Temperance Union were doing m Wellington, but he knew that m Auckland they were going to make a house-to-house canvass, and see that every man who had a vote gave it to the temperance candidates. He went on to remark that wherever he went m his travels round the world he heard complaints of the depression. In England he heard men parade the streets 'singing m a doleful. ait, " We've got no work to do." In America he heard Dr Talmagb, of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, advise his congregation tp " open the grates of the. South," and drive Englan.4 from Mexico and South America, and so end the depression there. Mr Came, a large manufacturer m England, said chat while all other trades were depressed the 'liquor trade alone prospered, and absorbed one-seventh of the total earnings of the people. Over £100,000,000 was spent annually m Great Britain on the liquor traffic, besides £15,00p,000 for the police and gaols, and another £10,000,000 for other expenses connected with it. If the liquor traffic wasi&one away with, £200,000,000 a year could be devoted to other brandies of trade. If we bad not a sober people, we could not have a good trade or any lasting prosperity. But he would tell them that if they had not a sober people, they would not have a righteous people. If they wanted Ibis colony to prosper, let them do away with the liquor traffic, and it would be the most free, the most prosperous Colony on God's earth. Sir William Fosfalso made some remarks upon .the feature of compensation for damaged vested interests by the closing of hotels. Sir William maintained m the demonstrative fearless strain which is characteristic of his references to the liquor traffic that he would as soon compensate the cholera-morbus or typhoid fever. The highest authorities m Great Britain had stated that the only vested right the publican had was m his license from year to year. In New Zealand the Jaw was stronger than that,f or magistrate were empowered to close houses that were not properly conducted. He understood the publicans intended putting m candidates at the next election who would endeavor to upset legislation of that kind. He continued as follows : — Since we began our Public Works scheme, we had expended as much on drink as we had borrowed m loans. If it were not for the

drink, we should have befln able to take up our own bonds, and would be the richest country m the world. The peo pie themselves would hare to get the same power as they possessed m the Dominion of Canada ahdV the State of lowa ; they should have the power to say whether hotels should be closed or not. We had 2200 drink-shops m New Zealand, but during the four years that we had the Licensing Committees twenty ot : them bad not been closed. If they closed them at two a year, it would take a thousand years to.., suppress the traffic. There is much m the above remarks that must appeal with great power and telling force to the best feelings of every rightthinking man' and "Woman m the com- 1 munity. ...