TEMPERANCE MEETING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5523, 9 December 1878, Page 3

TEMPERANCE MEETING.

A large temperance meeting was held at the Imperial Opera House yesterday afternoon, at which several addresses were delivered on the subject. The stalls, dress-circle, and boxes were well filled, and there was also a sprinkling of people in the pit and family-circle. On the platform were the Hon. Mr. Fox, M.H.R., Dr. Roseby, and Mr. Jago (of Dunedin), who are both on their way to Nelson to attend the annual session of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars, Mr. Adams, solicitor, the Rev. Mr Westall, S', o. The proceedings were opened by the singing of the first hymn (Moody and Sankey), “ Oh, my comrades,” after which the Rev. Mr. Westall engaged in prayer. The chairman (Mr. Wardrupp) explained the object for which the meeting was held, and presumed there were few present who would not admit that drunkenness was a sin. Yet strange to say very little notice was taken of it by any of the Churches, and hence it was all the more necessary that meetings like the present should bo called. He would at once ask Dr. Roseby to address the meeting. Dr. Roseby delivered a very eloquent address on the subject of temperance, in the course of which he pointed out that in the United Kingdom upwards of 60,000 persons annually passed to a drunkard’s grave, and 60,000 died annually in the United States from the same cause. He could not belivo the proportion to be any less in New Zealand, and he would strongly appeal to those present to assist in the cause which he had come there to advocate. Hymn 259, “ Will yon meet mo at the Fountain,” was then sung;" after which Mr. Jago addressed the meeting. Some people, he said, might object to meetings of this kind being held on the Sabbath afternoon, but he contended that if it was lawful, according to Scripture, to rescue an ox, a sheep, or an ass from the pit on the Lord’s Day, it was equally lawful to stretch forth their hands and rescue of men and women from the pit of degradation, demoralisation, and vice into which they had fallen through intemperance. If they were to deal effectively with the evil of intemperance, they must go to its foundation and atop drinking, that which alone made drunkards—they must stop drinking alcohol. Mr. Adams was the next speaker; he advocated prohibitory legislation, and the creation of a popular opinion on the subject. On the invitation of the Chairman, the Hon. W. Fox also spoke. He said that he had come there, not with the intention of speaking, but of listening to the addresses of their friends from Dunedin, and ho had certainly listened to them with a great deal of pleasure. At that late period of the afternoon, he believed he would use the wisest discretion in saying as little as possible. What more arguments could he use than those which had been already advanced by the gentlemen who had preceded him 1 If their arguments could not induce people to become friends of the temperance cause, anything he could say would have little effect. There were only two sides to the question—God's side and the devil's side. There was no third side on which God and the devil could shake hands. Was there, ho would ask them, a shilling which was bad on one side and good on the other ? Drunkenness would be trodden out if only the respectable classes of society would set a good example. The present habits of society were certainly to be deplored. If a child were bom, people must drink over it; if a relation died, they must, drink over it; it they elected a Mayor, they must drink over it; if they launched a ship, they must drink over it; and if they clenched a bargain, they must go to the publichouse. He therefore appealed to respectable people to put their shoulder to the wheel, to discountenance and discourage such practices, and to lend a helping hand to those who had nailed their colors to the temperance cause for so many years. The Chairman said he had listened to the various addresses which had been delivered with a great deal of interest and pleasure, and he believed the meeting would be productive of a great amount of good. The Doxology was then sung, and Dr. Roseby having pronounced the benediction, the proceedings terminated.