New Zealand Alliance.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 1, Issue 82, 7 November 1890, Page 2

New Zealand Alliance.

On Monday evening the Kev. Edward Walker, of the New Zealand Alliance for the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic, addressed a public meeting in the Atheneum Theatre. He spoke of drink in relation to our homes, our commerce, and our country. He said that in 1887 the Drink Dill of New Zealand was £3 5s per head of population according to the Government returns, and that if in any locality that sum is multiplied by the number of the population it will in most instances show approximately what is spent in the locality upon strong drink; and that if a reasonable estimate be formed of the rent, wages, license fee, and Liquor Bill paid annually by each publican, and the profit he makes after paying these expenses, the abovenamed expenditure by the locality on drink will generally be fully proved. Thus about £3,000 might be shown to be drawn annually from the products of the people for drink in a locality like Picton, and £2,000 a year here in Havelock, so that people would be all this the richer,, and trade would correspondingly revive if all liquor selling were prohibited, and the hotels reduced to the number that would pay to provide accommodation without the sale of liquor. Several persons became subscribers and members of the Alliance, and Mr W. H, Smith has consented to act as secretary of the local auxiliary. The following resolution drafted by the Alliance was passed by the late Parliament: —“ Whereas the enormous direct expenditure on intoxicating liquors in this Colony—amounting annually to more than two millions sterling—contributes largely to the existing depression, adds materially to crime and poverty, and reduces the capital available for reproductive industries; and whereas the people under the existing law are powerless fo remove the principal oapsa of these evils, jt Is, Ip tlpe. opihiqn of the House, imperative that the Government should, without delay, introduce a Bill giving power to the people, by direct vote at the ballot box, periodically taken, to prohibit the sale of such liquors within the district in which they reside,”