FACTS ABOUT ALCOHOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 607, 8 March 1929, Page 14

FACTS ABOUT ALCOHOL

N.Z. ALLIANCE MEETS RECENT CAMPAIGN REVIEWED Press Association WELLINGTON, Thursday. The New Zealand Alliance, at its annual meeting yesterday, adopted a resolution to the effect that it considered the w'orld-wide situation gave increasing cause for encouragement, and that an impartial survey of evidence of the position in the United States of America indicated that, in spite of the inevitable initial difficulties, the general effects of the prohibitory law were good. The chief feature of the 1928 campaign in Hew Zealand, continued the statement, was the command exercised by the liquor monopoly for propaganda purposes of huge financial resources with which the alliance could not possibly compete. Many unfair and prejudiced statements thus passed unanswered during the campaign and seriously affected the poll. The alliance further held that there had been no time in the history of the movement when the case was so overwhelming for personal and national total abstinence, and victory only awaited the day when scientific facts concerning the nature of alcohol and the effects of taking a drug as a beverage displaced traditional ideas. Mr. J. Malton Murray, executive secretary, was granted leave to submit to the meeting certain proposals not on the official programme. The pith of the proposals was that under the auspices of health, education and publicity departments there sohuld be set up a council or board, reinforced by economists, psychologists and others whose co-operation might bo considered necessary, and that this body should be responsible for the ■'Qiiduct of a comprehensive educative programme directed to informing -ill sections of society of the scientific facts about alcohol. The funds to be expended by the board would be derived by appropriating 2i per cent, of the present revenue from alcoholic beverages, or, alternatively, by increasing taxation on these beverages by Is 6d a gallon on spirits, Id a gallon on beer and Is 6d a gallon on wines. The meeting referred the proposals to the Standing Committee with power to act.