The Liquor Traffic Manifesto.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43386, 14 November 1908, Page 3

The Liquor Traffic Manifesto.

By the Eev. J. Dukes.

DUBING the last few days the Dominioi has been inundated with Licenee literature, telling us as electors what we are tc do. If it were not such a serious mattei there would be a ludicrous aspect about their action, for while they condemn the action of the churches in working for No-License, while they disallow any indication being given to the people how they ought to vote, they actually enclose a card to each elector, as a model for their imitation. This is very rich ? A s each elector is in possession of a bundle of papers sent out by the trade, I need but call attention to them. No. 1 is entitled “This interests you.” So it does immensely ? Question “ Have Ministers, etc.” Aiswer—ll2 Ministers

m the Auckland Province alone, answer Yes; and emphatically urge the electors to vote No-License. Why ? Because as the Ministers’ manifesto states “ 1 hroughout our province the consumption of strong drink has been attended by a most unhappy harvest of evil results. Blighted homes, and ruined lives, wretchedness, and misery, poverty and crime, insanity and disease have foliowed as the direct consequence of the unholy traffic in intoxicating liquors.” The liquor party has gone to the ends of the earth for clerical advocates of license Let us look at them: tl.e American Divines may be disposed of in a sentence. They are condemning coercive means of dealing with the liquor traffic, a totally different thing from that which obtains in this Dominion. Ours is a righteous principle, the exercise of which is a legitimate right of a free democracy. The people who bear the burdens of the liquor traffic have a perfect right to say whether they will, or will not have the

open bar in their midst, and if 60 poisons out of every 100 say at the ballot box, “we will not have it” then the

minority of 40 must submit. The Rev. Lyman Abbott said some years ago, “ This Prohibition was not the mind of Jesus,” nor is the American method ours also, for ours is No-License by a threefifths majority, by the will of the people, but while Christ did not join a Temperance Society, He ordained that a total abstainer should act as His forerunner, and He averred “ that he (John) was the greatest among them born of women.” At the same time, it borders on the blasphemous and profane, to drag that Holy Name into the controversy, and it makes one’s blood boil to find the Bible used to buttress a flaming iniquity, and Christ paraded as the patron Saint of the beer barrel and the tap room. Prohibition is as truly found in the Bible as the oaken plank is found in the acorn. The spirit of the Bible, the principles of Christianity, and the trend ol human progress are all with the earnest and strenuous men who wish to put down the liquor traffic. Who the Eev. Dr. Leonard Whittington is, I don’t know. I have taken an American paper for 23 years, and have spent some time in the Stater, but I never beard of him, but he says, that he saw in Connecticut “ hypocrisy, power, passion, etc.,” when attempts were made ■

going to abolish drimkenness from the land, but they believe it is going to lessen the sense of human misery resulting from license. to they are going to strike out the top line. 3. Drinking in Homes under NoLicense is said to be largely on the increase. This is flatly contradicted by those living in Invercargill, Oamaru, and Ashburton. The Eev, Mr Whitehouse (Anglican) who lives in Ashburton, and who 10 years ago was opposed to NoLicense says: —“From close observation I venture to say that no liquor goes into homes under No-License where it did not go under license, and there are now imany homes entirely free from it where its blighting effects were seen under license, 4. Sly grog-dens.” Until you can take the crave for liquor a a ay, which the traffic has largely engendered and fostered, there:will be sure to be found some sly grog selling, but, as in the case of Clutha, if only takes time and an efficient administration of the law to •wipe it out. Then, as to the upraised hands, and eyes of the traffic, and its holy horror at the iniquity of sly grog dens, from whom do they get their liquor but from Bung and Co. This firm is chiefly responsible for sly grog selling. 5. The Police records from Maine are too far fetched. The best argument in favour of No-License in Maine is that

to enforce the prohibitive law. Quite so, no doubt the liquor partj and their confraternity were exasperated, but the re form party have so mended matters there that when I went through twice, the whole length of Connecticut, I did not

»ee one man under the influence of liquor, In reply to the Rev. W. Beatty I would say that I am not aware that any of the 112 ministers in the Auckland Province have abandoned the preaching of the Gospel for the advocacy of a process of legal compulsion. No such a process is before us, and to use his own words, “They make the No-License quesJj- tion a secondary and subordinate one.” Would Mr Beatty take away from the people the political right to decide this question ? If he wouh 1 , then he is a medievalist of the most pronounced type. If he would not, why throw dust in the eyes of the electors by such cant as legal compulsion. To the question then at ; the I head of their paper, we give a most emphatic affirmative, for since the liquor traffic is one of the greatest opponents to the advance of the Gospel, and an occasion of falling to thousands in this Dominion it is the dutv of the Ministers

License No-License Period Period. Drunkenness 221 1.53* Breaches of Peace.. 9 2 Disorderly Conduct l 1 Obscene language 21 14 Obstructing Police 6 11 Sexual Offences .. 9 9 267 182

* Nearly all the above cases of drunkenness in the No-T ieense period either obtained their drink from or came in drunk from licensed areas,

and Church of Christ to advocate NoLicense and thus “ take up the stumbling block out of the way of My people saith the Lord.” Paper No. 2. “Are you sure, etc,” Take the paragraphs seriatim : Par. 1. No, we are not sure that NoLicense will satisfactorily dispose of alcoholic excess, but we are quite sure it will minimise the tempta'ion to excess, and lessen the drinking habits of the people, as it has done in Invercargill by 30 per cent, and in Ashburtc n 250 per oent, compared with the whole bf the Dominion. In Ashburton during the five years of No-License the amount of drink has been reduced by 172,193 gallons of beer, and 17,484 gallons of wim s and spirits. Par, 2, It is an insult tc our intelligence and contrary to facts to say that excessive drinking is a vanishing evil in licensed dirtricts. It is conspicuously so in the No-Licensed electorates, but under license it is increasing alarmingly Par, 3, “ Emancipation ” is a word the traffic seeks to conjure with, but what right has the traffic—the most cruel, tyrannical, slave-holder the world contains to-day—to preach emancipation. It has destroyed the will-power of many a bright intellect, and put him in fetters, and then it mocks him by saying that the chain it has bound him with is an orna-

6. As to revenue accruing to the Government and local bodies from the liquor traffic it reminds one of the couplet “John Brown of his great bounty

Built this bridge at the expense of the County. Yery generous man that ! !

It is certainly the height of folly to impoverish the Dominion to the extent of £5,000,000 in order to pay £BOO,OOO in the way of revenue.

7. “No-License destroys manhood,” says the Trade’s Manifesto, and pictures the evidences of deterioration when a man can sneak round a corner into a sly grog den. What about the thousands that sneak round the coiners of hotel back premises every Sunday, and the faithful watchers on the look-out for the police. We may be obtruse, but we fail to see that one is any more manly than the other.

8. General Booth, after all his efforts and those connected with the Army, to save the drunkard, it is nothing less than sacrilege to exhibit his likeness in the hotels as an opponent of No-License. As the lie direct has been given to this statement by Commissioner Mackie, by local Salvationists, by the War Cry, and by the No-License manifesto, I need say no moi e.

ment, rather than a fetter. In such a connection the talk about No-License subverting a man’s intellectual and moral force is the veriest drivel. Par. 4. “ Then ask yourselves in all seriousness, etc.” Yes, we will ask intelligent voters whether they believe that the majority of licensed houses ar< kept according to law. If so, what about jj, - the reeling home at closing time ? What about the considerable number of young men in this town and district who are visibly on the down grade ? What about wives and children being turned out of

doors at 11.30 p.m to spend the remainder of the night huddled together in the open air. Is licensed to make men drink and turn them into brute beasts a legitimate business ? The traffic affirms that the victims to alcholic excess are 2 or three persons per thousand of our population. Have we only 3 persons cursed with intemperance in Te Aroha ? Are there only 250 in Auckland ? The num-

ber of prohibition orders taken out in Auckland is more than double that num-

ber, and these are only a fraction of those who drink to excess. Let the trade keep to the truth, for lies never helped any cause yet. Par. 5. Oh, this wail about the unemployed being augumented if NoLicense is carried. Well, the trade will not deceive intelligent people by this ruse. Every No-License electorate in New Zealand has given the lie to this statement by furnishing plenty of work for those in search of it. If a man is

saved from the drink habit he loses no time by drinking bouts, he makes more money, he employs other labour by furnishing his empty house. First come the necessuies, then the luxuries of books, music, pictures, games, etc. No, _ , Bung and Co. we will not deceive our-

11 | selves, but strike out tie- Top . ino for ; the betterment of our fellow.-, o | Par. 6. Purely the climax of impudence r lis reach'd when w- are told th t Xo•t I Lice> so is lesponsible for the degradin';-

e vices <f the people. Hear this, 0 ye r 112 Ministers of the Auckland province ! Y Your action is said to be the cause of all r this misery ! W*ll, this is staggeringly

“ unanswerable, so we leave it alone. It has been repeatedly said by No-License > advocates that the cases of sly grog sell- “ ingin “dry” electorates is as nothing ■ compared with the evil in licensed dis- ; tricts, and this is so. Every case of permitting drunk* nness, supplying a men ' wh r n drunk, or during prohib’ted hours, is sly grog selling, and we don’t get a , twentieth uart of these cases in our Police

Courts. Pray let nothing more If said about this traffic being regulated by law. All such so-called regulation is a complete farce. Paper No. 3. “The Boy’s mother and her precious son.” The following facts have been gathered from Ashburton. This particular woman used to send the S:une boy for liquor for herself in the days’ of license. She has always been opposed to No-License. This boy—whose welfare (according to the mother’s opinion) is so intimately connected with the liquor traffic, has been so schooled in the use or abuse of liquor, that he will actually go 24 miles —there and back to get it. Of the quality of this evidence, fellow electors judge ye ! This Ashburton mother’s letter is a wonderful concoction. Paper No. 4. “ Points.” Yes, unquestionably there is a moral issue in this business. 1. Because we believe that No-License will immensely raise the moral tone, we say strike out the top line. 2. Our women are not so ignorant that they consider that No-License is

the State has decreed that it shall for ever remain what it is’—under Prohibition It is enough for us to go to Invercargill, according to the Southland Times of July 6th, of the present year, we are enabled to compare the results of IS months of No-License with the same period of license i I

9. New Zealanders very temperate. Only one in 1500 native born take liqno -• to excess. If that were true—which it i not—are they the only ones to care for I' If a large number of now arrivals are given to drink, so muchthe worse for the

Dominion, but the trade is only throwing dust in the eyes of the electors. Young New Zealanders had not used to drink, but the traffic has been swooping a large number of young men into its deadly grasp during the last five years. Every observer knows that, and a considerable

number of young men are going to vote No-License in order that the temptation may be removed. Fathers aud mothers 3-011 know the perils besetting your boys, by the existence of the open bar, save them by striking out the top-line, and thus vote it out of existence.