PHYSICIAN, SOLDIER, AND POLITICIAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43115, 9 July 1907, Page 1

PHYSICIAN, SOLDIER, AND POLITICIAN.

There was scarcely a vacant; seat in the body of the hall when the chief speaker was? Surgeon-General Evatt. The chair was occupied by the Pre* sident (The Hon. Mrs Eliot Yorke), who made an encourag-i ing speech dealing with the pro-;| grass which was being made by? the temperance movement. She>l remarked that Surgeon-General Evatt was fitted to speak to them! in a three-fold capacity—as a soldier, a doctor, and as a politi-4 cian.—(Applause), Surgeon-General Evatt said it J| had been his privilege to speak 1 for the cause of temperance iri|j the snows of Afghanistan, under | the burning sun of India, in|f China and every part of the V Empire. His audiences had not | been composed of ladies and gentlemen, but soldiers, before whom it was very necessary the j principles of temperanoe shouldj be placed. He was an optimist | of the optimists—(Applause).|| It was possible for the nation?! | and for the officers to so improve the condition of a soldier's life that the army might become a model for the world, or, on the jj other hand, they could , mar the nation’s defenders. *He de~H scribed the conditions which? prevailed some forty years ago B when he joined the army, and | said the drunkard was made A among the soldiers by prevent- jl able neglect. There was no moral training in those days, j 5 but there had been a. great change since. There had been || a radical change, and now thero were 40,000 teetotalers in the i|J army, while 4,000 others had j given up the canteen. It v.rsa ? moral reform as well as a mili- ■% tary one. The burden of the fg Empire rested heavily on Great Britain, and their' responsibiJityM was great. At the afternoon ,tj meeting they heard about tko?J growth of drunkenness amoog-.:J : women, but the one great reason A j lor the drunkenness must he i ! made known. L'et them on |

Temperance Sunday invite the medical officer oi Health to j [preach the sermon. He would ' tell them the cause. So long as 5) f they had overcrowding of the | ! people they would not make j much progress in regard to I temperance. The people were j handicapped, and there was little | hope for their salvation, either ,0; body or soul, whilst their conditions were against them.— (Hear, hear). He spoke of. the|l condition of soldier life in India, isnd remarked, in passing, that ;| there had never been a time like If the present when the future of -j India was a ques'iuu of moi-elg grave importance, and it was | i necessary to rule her with sym j J i pathy —with profund sympathy|| —following upou the success of the Asiatic army over Russia of There must be a government ohl heart to heart, and hand to baud. J They must concede to the fust | demands of India.—(Hear, he«r).i| He therefore appealed to tli m for their sympathetic considera- If tion of the demands of India. He went on to,refer to th° eon- p ditions uuder which the soldicslf existed under the buruiug sins 1 of India or iu the severity of tlurij cold iu the mountainous parts in if the uorth of the country, andj|; added that it had been by scientific inveslig.ition thatdj in cither case th > use of alcohol wai altogether again tth> best § Interests of the ,-o licrs, au 1 I consequently of the nation f| Speaking of the general of the question of he drink | traffic, he said th.>y must r> :: i m unberthat the na‘ion w is from the chief citizen on. thdlf throne to the lowest woman in i slum, and h»y should do nothiugj which would have the etf. ci of % lessening the high moral standi dard of the people. (Tobe Contmiud. I