Blue Ribbon Temperance Union.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1681, 10 April 1886, Page 4

Blue Ribbon Temperance Union.

T'»e inaugural pieeting of the above Union was neld m the Foresters' Hall last evening ---and was largely .atttajqdid, the building beinr tilled downstairs and also a number finding seats m the gallery. U.is Worship the Mayor, AXux.. Ferguson, Esq., opened toe proceeding* by calling on the lingers to render hymn No. 102 m the Tetnjierance Hymn Book commencing " The merry birds m wood and grove," after which he addressed those preseut. He said the objects of the temperance movement were ones which he considered should commend themselves to all right-thinking uaople. He was not a temperance orator, nor was he connected with any temperance organisation. He, however, was a total s* abstainer and was perhaps therefore not out of place m being chairman of the meeting. He thought on the whole that temperance advocates were too strong when expressing themselves m public on behalf of the movement. Thei c was one tiling they might take heart from, viz , the drink custom waa only a custom ; it was a bad one, certainly, like many . others, but he believed it would eventually die out as many of th& fashions of older days. had. .50 or 6*o .years ago! drinking customs were far 'different to what they were at.tiie present duy. It was then tiie fashion tor people to so to bed as drunk a« they possible could get. In wealthy families, indeed, it was usu d tv have have one man to attend to the duties of looking- after the intoxicated members of the household and loosen their cravats for them and put them to bed. A change had, however, taken place. Sir Wilfred Law son had had a \ Jrreat battle m the Honse at Home on Hie question of Local Option, and he believed that the result would be that soon ] .oral Option would be the order of the day m (xreftt Britain, tt also used/to be the custom m olden time to nropow i toast after dinner tantamount to asking th.« ladies to withdraw, ia order that the gentlemen mi; ht ipdultre m their wine Joaoj Mtsit. TW fWtew ba4 #*d M*

and would not now be tolerated. Even at funerals people used to get very well '•tight" before the proceedings had concluded. Sadder than anything he knew of, even at the celebration of the Holy Communion, recipients of the emblems were known to become intoxicated. Now, however, things were different, but for all that the drink traffic was not clone away with and it would be many yeorS' before it should. Those who indulged m the beverage always had an excuse, none of them liked it. Customs had changed very materially m latter days. It was was now at Home the practice instead of , offering strong drink to visitors at private houses to place tea or coffee before ■ them instead. This was also becoming the fashion m the colonies. Even m Wellington House this custom had bten prevalent for some time past. He might say that he was quite willing to join, but did not ace his way clear just at the present. He had a good reason for not do ing so. He, however, had always been a total abstainer and would fell them how. it happened. At the age of 14 his mother promised him the gold watch he was wearing that night on the condition hat he would keep a total abstainer until h« was 21. He got the watch at 19, but ha wns still on his honor. He was then feeling as if he would just like to have a drink and see whut it was like, and on the morning of his 21st birthday he jumped out of bed with the idea that he was then free and could safely and honorably have a good drink. However, during his toilet, he had time to reflect ami considered that after all as he had done without it so. ldm; for his mothers sake he would continue to do so for his own. Since then he had not altered his determination and he was now,' as al ways, a total abstainer. He had promised the very same watch to his eldest son on the same terms: A few further remarks wore made on the cause of Temperance, und the Chairman called on the JSeerefcarj' to read his report, after which a recitation was giwn by Master W. Dixon entitled " Nothing and Something." The Rev. A. M. Wright then addressed the meeting. He stated that about a week back he had received an invitation to attend the meeting and give the cause of Temperance his moral support, tie was never before m his life at a Temperauoc meeting and felt it rather a novel position. 22 years ago he had become a total abstainer. He had found that going about so much as he did amongst the members of his congregation and being asked to take a friendly glass m most places ho visited would very soon if accepted or practised lead to becoming a drunkard or very near it. He saw that the only thing to be done was to maku a firm stand and do without it altogether. He had seen men m his own church, clover and intelligent, men of considerable ability and talent brought to ruin by the cursed habit and m many cases he Was sorry to have to say it, the Presbytery, aye m New Zealand, had to loosen the ' pastoral tie. He was not a blue ribbon man. He, however, might perhaps be tempted to join but did not see his way quite clear that evening. He would, however, always express the most hearty sympathy with any work that would be likely to make men — men, and keep men from becoming beasts. '"-The -sou : " Boautiful Home" was then sung' as a quartette by Mrs Kibble white, Miss Grace, and Messrs Kibblewhite and Grace, after which the Chairman called on Mr Bruce to address the meeting. Mr Bruce said he fell it a great honor to be invited from a distance to address such a audience as that before him. and te stand shoulder to shoulder with tke men who were fighting against the demon drink, and lend a hand to put down the accursed custom. A great many of the old Palmerston residents would remember when it was considered the most drunken place m New Zealand. He remembered a person at one time being shown into a hotel room m this very town for refreshment, and the floor of that room was strewn with intoxicated men lying on the floor. The temperance tide was, however, he was glad to say, rising. He' was present m Wellington at what he believed was the largest temperance demonstration ever held m New Zealand lately. He had watched a procession to the Exhibition of total abstainers, and had seen the children m that procession crowd along like sheep. There must have been over 1000 children. He had never seen so much blue ribbon before m his life, and when he heard these children sing inside the walls of the Exhibition building, "New Zealand shall' bo free" he felt that surely the day was cot tar distant. When the children roll up this way, it means something m the future. Orators may spaak and perhaps save one or two, but when the children are banded together something more substantial is expected. Was it not a sin that the traffic should be allowed t> rule* m the land. They all remembered 1 the. smill pox scare and the precautions which were taken and the preventive means adopted to quell the plague,- but this drink curse was a greater evil, arid yet it was found almost impossible to gel a man to make a stand against it. Gladstone, the Prime Minister of England, had said that the evil was greater than any of the three which Great' Britain had to contend with, viz., war, pestilence, and famine. There were snakes being imported to New Zealand every tiajr, and yet people would not lift a finger to destroy the foe m vading thair shores. ' There wore three aspects of the temperance qyestion upon whicii he would like to address thvin, viz., the financial, th« physical, and the m >ral ami religious. Financially tirat — There were a number of things m the world which had wonderful facilities for swailrwing, but the drunkard beat them all. He could awallow down chairs, tables, olothinsr, blankets, houses, f.rms, broad acres, m fact everything, and the more they swallow the more miserable they been me. He would give them a few iigures, startling facts too, to think over: Regarding the louse* of the drinkers and the amount of inouey spent m New Zealand m drink. In Great Britain, during .the ten years ending 1880, there was spent 130,000,000 yearly.or £4 2s 5d for avery man, woman, and child, taking 1 this basis for a New Zealand calculation,or a little less for half a million . Well, then was two millions spent for drink m New Zealand annually, thig sum could pay all the interest on the national debt, every penny, and Jsa-ve half a million over to liquidate the principal, or spend on public works. Th»y heard a good deal about the money staying m the country when it was spent on drink, hut he knew that a great deal did not stay m the country. In any case, what did the drunkard get from that ? How much better off were his children for clothes and food ; when th« money of tne settler went for drink there was so much less to give the son a start m life or to put away for a rainy day or for old age. Physically and mentally — They had often , heard it said that one example was worth! a thousand arguments, and he would give ■ one of his own experiences. He spoke? of a man who had at one time £3 10s per week m Wellington, and who afterwards worked for him. m Fitzherbert at 12s per week, and subsequently found his way to the lunatic asylum m Auckland, all through drink ; John Giles was his ram*. He got one side paralyzed m : Auckland, und when he left the hospital , took to his old habits, and wound up by losing his r«ason. He was glad 10 say, however, that though almost a complete wreck, he recovered to v ctrtain extent, and he had since had letters from him, and he believed his people at Home Had arranged to get him back, and look after him. He had m one lettersaid that one. third of the m mutes ox the asylum were ther« through «tron« drink, $© be Qon*inued f ) |