NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 481, 18 June 1890, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

LECTURE BY MR BUTTERS. Auckland, June 14. Sir William Fox presided at a meeting of the New Zealand Alliance held last night in the Wesley Hall, Pitb-streeb. In introducing the lecturer, Mr Butters, of Edinburgh, Sir William made several remarks on the work of the Alliance. They wore' striving to get electors the right to declare at the poll whether or no they would have liquor sold. The licensing laws were a farce —in seven years only twenty-five houses had been closed by their agency. The people must regulate the drink traffic themselves, and declare whether there should be any licenses granted in their neighbourhood or not. ; Mr Butters, who was warmly, received, began bis.address hv stating thaib a lecture - on temperance was one of the most difficult matters possible to tackle. A great and . celebrated Scotch divine had once said'thab be would rather preach a dozen sermons than speak on the temperance question, of which he was a great advocate. Personally he (Mr Butters) had been much puzzled what branch of the subject he should take up, but had finally decided to speak on prohibition and compensation. Compensation never had and never would be tolerated or even thought of by Englishspeaking people. He was very strong on this subject, he said; some people had called him a fanatic, and perhaps he was one, bub any way he wished he could infect a good many people with his fanaticisms. Prohibition laws had been steadily in progress from a very early date. In the reign of Edward the Second one was passed limiting the houses in London for the sale of liquor to three. This must have been a very considerable reduction, even in those days. There were measures passed prohibiting the sale of liquor in the reigns of Henry the Second and Edward the Sixth, and in 1757 a liquor law was passed beside which ohe Maine law looked mild by comparison. The state of the Sunday drink traffic was creating such a scandal in the year 1853 that 1,800 men were told off to see how many persons visited public, houses on Sunday, and in was found that in Edinburgh alone on one particular Sunday there were 41,000 persons,including children, who purchased strong drink. The horror aroused amongst all persons pretending to respectability was so great that with one voice it was declared that the practice must be stopped, and stopped it was. There was no compensation granted the publicans on this occasion, and' rieveY would be. The hours of public-houses had been reduced three hours at the same time, and no question of compensation had ever then arisen. The lecturer then spoke anent the Welsh Liquor Traffic Bill and the measures taken to prohibit the sale of liquor on the short-trip Clyde steamers; and the scenes of drunkenness which used to take place on them. Prohibition and no compensation was still progressing, as it had done for the last 500 years.