Mr Richardson at Te Aroha

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42786, 3 October 1905, Page 3

Mr Richardson at Te Aroha

PROHIBITIONIST ADDRESS. Last night in the Public Hall, Mr Wm, Richardson, of Auckland, gave an address on Prohibition. There •was a good attendance. Mr Deveyy chairman, introduced thfe speaker, who proceeded to show, by means of charts, the evil effects of alcoholic liquors upon the brain, stomach, liver, heart, and kidneys of moderate drinkers and drunkards, and stated that there was absolutely no need i to take liquor as a stimulant. The only ■ rational stimulants for a tired person were' good food and rest. The speaker said that to , live long a person must not drink at all, and it had been conclusively proved by the scienc tific research of medical men that steady “nipping” done daily was worse than occa'r sional drunken bouts with comparatively long intervals between.

Statistics had been taken of the deaths of men between the ages of 25 and 65 years of age, and it found that the greatest mortality was amongst public house and .hotel servants, rather less among publicans arid brewers, and then other occupations following in less degree, with clergymen, the best living men, overtopping the 65 years in large proportion; Mr Richardson said that beer was one of the great producers of a cancerous stomach, but that smoking also produced cancer, but in the mouth. He hoped' that every beer-drinker present; would in future when drinking, see reflected in the glass, a picture of the disease shown in. the diagram before them. He aivisded Prohibitionists to pitch away their pipes after their beer. Sons of toil, said Mr Richardson, if you want good nerves and muscles you must leave the nerve-destroying agent alone. Drinking raised the beating of the heart so high above the nonrial speed that great danger was brought about in this way. These charts would.no doubt be shown more in our schools, but for the fact that the liquor party had not only a mortgage on our present generation, but on our children as well. A person who drinks cannot keep sound lungs very long. Medical Commissions in various European countries have declared that if the consumption of alcoholic liquors were totally stopped, tuberculosis would disappear. The body, said the speaker, is like a chain, which gives way at the weakest link, and whatever part of the body gave out through the effects of drink, it would involve the whole. Pulsediagrams were shown which indicated that the pulse of a smoker was almost as irregular and. enfeebled as that of a drinker. Mr Richardson then traced drink back from almost the beginning of history, calling attention to the fact that several ancient empires—the Assyrian, Meio-persian Roman, and Grecian, had all fallen through riotous and intempeiate living, and he pointed to the comparatively sober Japanese race who so recently had successfully overcome the great but drunken Russian nation. 1 In early British history it was seen that all the soldier’s drank and caroused, and that often in the conflict the drunken went down. | What is the chief characteristic, of the British race to-day ? Take the multitudes in the British Isles and Australasia: No man can assume them to be moral. Why are they not ? Simply because of the liquor saloons. If the people were willing to let them remain open, then he pitied them their love of country. The value of, drink consumed in New Zealand in one year, the speaker said, was greater than the value that had yet been produced by the Waihi mine since it began. It was thought by many that under prohibition the public houses would be closed —that was not so, the bars alone wouldclo; e. At Ashburton general prosperity had set in since Prohibition was carried. An hotel that was building at the time cost £II,OOO, and was sold a few months after for £15,000.

Licenses were applied for on a plea of providing accommodation, but they were really often applied for to make people drunk. The people of Te Aroha, said the speaker, should give Prohibition a three year’s trial at this election, and if they did not like it, they could afterwards go back. It rested with the people to each make a stand to save themselves. The women of this country want sober husbands and sons. “ Let Mr Seddon show his love for the women by removing the drink shops,” said Mr Richardson, who said he wanted to see a new people’s party—a Prohibition party—come forward and make the colony an example to the British Empire. Mr Richardson said he had come from Australia to give the (balance of his life to the promotion of temperance in New Zealand, and he hoped that all who were present would, during the next two months, dedicate themselves as missionaries in this cause, and thus enable them to sweep the poll at the next election.

QUESTIONS. One of the people present stilted < hat when a boy at school he was taught that lrink was an evil, but that was twenty-five years ago. In reply Mr Richardson said that there had recently been many deputations to the Education Board, but they absolutely refused to order temperance lessons in schools. Teachers inay give these lessons at their own option, but few do so. In the event of Prohibition being carried, would not there be likely to be some unbeneficial reaction? Clutha has had Prohibition for eleven years and there was no harmful reaction there. Only good had resulted from the npvement in America. Mr Richardson explained'how Prohibition had been carried in Maine aril Kansas, UJS.A., but some saloons had beer kept open owing to laxity of the lav/;. Those were smashed by Miss Carrie Nation; and soon afterwards removed by enforc&fliin.t of the law. Fm Te Aroha there is a Sanatorium visited .by people from all parts—-what eibet do you (think it would have if all the bars were (dosed ? ; S. think people would come from other parts •simply for the new environment I don't (think tourists are always wanttrg whisky, ■and I (Consider it a gross slander them to say that is their object in traveling around (the country. Under prohibition, tie wives of working men would be able to trjvel round .too, at holiday times with money that was mow spent on drink, and many Aicklanders who had never seen Te Aroha word then be mMe (to,come. : Many of ourvisitors are people wo spend a amount of money, nt only in rth« bats, ;but .with the various tnlespeople. ■WotM ffti/ey not,, on hearing that tis was a jProhibitiojriet-place, be less incliiri to leave :their gold here r „ J think the wife ef a man who \yH given to • drinking, would try to engineer hii to spend ’his holidays; in a Prohibition-districj Mr Pevey then proposed a votof thanks tto Mr Richardson and the meetinglosed.