IRISH ASSOCIATION FOR PREVENTION OF INTEMPERANCE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43116, 11 July 1907, Page 1

IRISH ASSOCIATION FOR PREVENTION OF INTEMPERANCE.

At the annual meeting held at Dublin, the .Right Rev; Mon?,' signor Mannix, D.D., said that a short time ago the outlook was gloomy and depressing in . the extreme. The drink bill of Ireland was goiug Up by leaps and bounds ; new licences were being granted all over the country with reckless facility ; the public-house, which had ruined to a large extent the cities and vx the towns, was following ' the. peuple into the country districts .. and bringing the liquor to t ho ; very doors of the rural p£sple. It seemed as if the legislators were overawed by the power of . the liquor interest when they tried to take measures against it; and even religion itself seemed Ito be unable to cope with the power of the drink evil. But, 4 notwithstanding what they some- . times heard, he was eomiuced that they had lived to see the dawn of a happier day—(loud applause)—a day in which legislators and voters, laymen and. clerics, were more interested in the Temperance question than ever since the break-up of the I Father Mathew movement. (Ap- V iplause.) The past year had witnessed a long stride forward, and unless they were greatly mistaken, the future was big with promise. It would be a great pity if forecasted legislation f r England and Scotland was not ext aided to this country. which, whatever its other •‘rtues—and they were great—

• '»• *1 this respect as ranch ~ n::) odier country

■■ ’!• MOV •.*!!- ( A j>p).:lUS •) Al--1 r;\*dy dm law o? (he hmd had ; guea some 'further protection, I A .stay had been put to the (granting of new licences—a temporary stay, he believed, which lu hoped would be made permanent. Something also had been done in the direction < f keeping children out of publichouses. These measures, which j were [ ood for the n< ople, had with difficulty found their way Ito the Statute Book, and/that I they were there as all was, he ; did not hesitate to say, largdy j due to the untiring energy of dm | association, whose annual meet, ing they were celebrating. (Ap.< clause.) There was one other advantage which they had got from recent legistation, namely, that the sanctity of the Lord’s Bay had, to a large extent, been | given back, so far as it was in ! the power of an Act of Parli - | rnent to do it. Perhaps he ought to qualify the statement as regarded the five exempted, or, as he would ratfeer call them five abandoned cities—(laughter and applause)—nnd/ffeduction had also to be made-with reference to the bona fide traveller—the pet of the legislature. , (To be Continued,