MR FOX IN WAIRARAPA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 24, 8 July 1871, Page 12

MR FOX IN WAIRARAPA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Pursuant to announcement in the " Mercury" and Mail, the Hon. Wm. Fox delivered a lecture on Temperance at the Town Hall, Grey town, on Monday, July 3. It was a beautiful evening, and the large hall was crowded. The wonder was where all the people came from. On the motion of Mr Moles, the Rev. J. Ross was unanimously voted to the chair. The Chairman expressed his gratification at seeing so large an audience on the occasion. It afforded him also great pleasure to state that he had found from personal observation that the principles of total abstinence were making rapid progress in this district, and he was glad to learn that this was the case all over the colony, and also in the mother country. He could state from his own knowledge that in the Wairarapa there was a strong feeling in favor of practical abstinence from intoxicating drinks. He would not occupy the time of the meeting, but at once introduce Mr Fox, with the expression of his satisfaction that a gentleman occupying his position should come forward to advocate the temperance cause.

Mr Fox, on coming forward, was received with cheers. He commenced his address by referring to some remarks which had been made in the "Mercury" with reference to his contemplated visit to the district. Mr Fox considered those remarks uncalled for and unfriendly. If lie had not before, visited the Wairarapa, it was out of no disrespect to the settlers. He had no intention of treating the district with contempt, and he thought it might be rather said that the district had treated him with contempt in not having invited him before. At all the other places where he had lectured he had always been honored with an invitation, and it was simply because he had not received one from the Wairarapa that he had not before visited the district. He believed that he was the first white man who had ever set foot in this part of New Zealand. This he had done in 1843, in company with Sir C. Clifford, the Hon. Mr Petre, Mr Molesworth, and Mr Whitehead, the surveyor. They lost their way near the Rimutaka, and after getting over that mountain, they remained three weeks in the valley, which then contained nothing but a few Maoris and a number of wild pigs. He assured the settlers that he looked upon them tt-ith feelings of pride and of the highest respect, on witnessing the progress they had made, the fine buildings they had erected, and the signs of advancement, which a district so lately a desert, exhibited on every side. He would freely forgive the editor of the " Mercury" for his discourteous remarks, and trusted that he would soon be as warm a supporter of the temperance cause as he was now, as he understood, the warmest in opposing it. Turning to the subject which had called them together, he said that editors of newspapers, and the general public, had very vague ideas on this question, though it was one of the great social questions of the day. It was a question of greater magnitude, and requiring closer study to master it, than any other question in political or social economy. There was a great amount of ignorance prevailing on the subject, and most persons were totally unacquainted with the facts which originated the movement. He would, therefore, commence with a few dry figures, in order to show the cost and magnitude of the evil they had to contend with; and in order that they might see what the liquor trade was doing in Great Britain and New Zealand. These statistics, though generally uninteresting, were necessary Jo elucidate the subject. Great Britain and Ireland contained a population of 30,000,000, and the cost of government, exclusive of the interest on the National debt, was £45,000,000. Now, £88,000,000 per annum was spent in that country on intoxicating drinks ; this.gave about £3 per head as the sum annually swallowed by every man, woman, and child in the country; representing an amount of self-imposed taxation nearly double that required for the payment of the army and navy> and the whole cost of the government of the great British Empire, on which the sun never set. Now, how stood the case in this colony ? Were

we any better in this respect than the people of Great Britain ? He would quote a few figures as a reply to this question, taken from the returns of ] 868, as the census returns of the present year were not, as yet, published. The Customs duties on intoxicating drinks, including spirits, wine, ale, and porter, amounted to £429,000, which multiplied by three which would approximately represent the amount paid by the consumer —would make the actual total cost £1,287,000 of imported liquors. But that was not all we spent. There were 2,749,000 gallons of ale in that year brewed in New Zealand, which at Is per gallon, amounted to £i12,000. This made a total of £1,699,000 spent on intoxicating drinks in one year; which was at the rate of £6 10s per head for every soul of the population; or, deducting sober men, women, and children, it would make the amount £SO per head spent by the drinking part of the community. The lecturer then pointed ou«,by numerous happy illustrations how much more' - advantageous it would be to the country if this money was expended on more useful objects. Large as the sum was, there was a greater waste than that; there was the waste of mis-spent time, and the ruin of the national character. The lecturer then referred to the evidence collected by the committee appointed by the Church of England convention recently held in the ecclesiastiej| province of Canterbury, England, whicn went to show that nine-tenths of all the vice, misery, lunacy, destitution, and crime which prevailed at home was owing to the drinking habits of the people. A finer and a nobler sight was not to be witnessed on the earth than the hard-working laborer returning on a Saturday evening to his home from his weekly toil, and met by his wife and little ones at the door with -smiles and words of welcome and affection ; but a sight more moveable could not be seen than that of the wretched drunkard, who, after expending his earnings at the public-house, was kicked out of doors, perchance with a bruised face, to roll in the gutter. After describing the treatment the soldier and sailor received at the hands of the police, who were, after returning from a foreign war, or a distant station, frequently kicked into the streets without a shilling in their pockets, and giving other illustrations of the evils arising from the use of strong drink, the lecturer enquired whether it was not time that something was done to stay their course —was it not time that all this was put a stop to ? Talk about Britons never being slaves ! There was not a slave on the face of the earth half so much a slave as he who was the slave of the publichouse. The lecturer then referred to the remedies which had been recommended for the evils he had described, and pointed out that the publichouse was the greatest impediment to the spread of the Gospel; that education afforded no safeguard against drunkenness ; that Scotland and the United States were remarkable for their educational systems, and also for their drunkenness ; that freetrade in liquors had been proved to be mischievous, a fact which had been forcibly established in the case of Liverpool ; that the allowing storekeepers the privilege to sell liquor by the bottle was the worst system of all; and that the regulation of publichouses, by the magistrates and the police we had at present, was totally inadequate to prevent the evils arising from the liquor traffic. He then explained some of the provisions of Mr Brace's new licensing bill, and also those of the Ohio law on the same subject. Mr Fox thought that so long as any publichouses existed those provisions of the latter law should be adopted in this colony, which made the landowner and the landlord of the publichouse jointly responsible for losses sustained by widows and orphans in consequence of the death, through drinking, of their legal and natural protectors,, in the same manner as railway companies in England were responsible for deaths and accidents arising from the wilful negligence of their servants. Of the two, it was a thousand times worse to be run over by a beer barrel thau by a railway train. Damages had been recovered to a large amount in several instances under the Ohio law, which had so frightened the publicans that 50 of them in one small

town in one day put up their shutters. The lecturer then explained at some length the nature and objects of the Permissive Bill, which he said were not understood by editors of newspapers; and, in reply to some remarks of the " Melbourne Argus," pointed out that there was not a law that did not interfere in some way with individual liberty. He could not brew a bottle of whisky without a license, nor sell, it when brewed without one. The object of the Permissive Bill was to take out of the hands of the Bench of Magistrates, and to place in the hands of the people themselves, the power of regulating the liquor traffic, and of granting or refusing publicans' licenses. As a magistrate, during all his experience, he had never but one case where a license had been taken away, and scarcely a case where a license had been app'ied for and not granted. Let a publican be guilty of the most atrocious conduct, still he would get a renewal of his license. It was high time that the syf ;?m was changed. The people of Ne\? Zealand were considered qualified to exercise the privilege of self-govern-ment ; they were entrusted with the election of school committees and road boards, the Superintendent of the province, and virtually of the members of the Government, both general and provincial, and it was only now sought by the Permissive Bill to intrust them also with the power of granting or refusing publicans' licenses. It was not a teetotal measure, and many of its warmest advocates were not even teetotallers. The bill only enabled the part ; es living in the district where the public house was to have a voice in the matter, whether a license should be granted or refused. This was what the advocates of the Permissive Bill required ; and they had no doubt that when the matter was left 'to the people themselves, the greater part of the public houses would be swept away from the face of the earth. Sir Wilfrid Lawson's bill gave power to the district to say whether there should be any publichouses or not in its limits. The Auckland bill gave power to two thirds of the men and women of the district to decide on every individual license. After referring to several other topics bearing on the subject, the lecturer concluded his address by an eloquent appeal for aid from the female part of his audience. This was essentially a woman's question, and he requested their assistance to bring it to a successful issue. Mr Fox concluded his address amidst loud applause.

The Rev. Mr M'Nicol, in an earnest address, proposed a vote of thanks to the lecturer, which was seconded by Mr S. Hart, and carried by acclamation. The meeting then dispersed.

Mr Fox delivered a lecture at Carterton on Tuesday evening. He had a very large and attentive audience, who showed their appreciation of the lecturer's remarks by frequent applause. Mr Fox explained that the Permissive Bill, if one was introduced in the coming session, would not be a Ministerial measure. He concluded his lecture amidst the applause of all present.