CANTERBURY.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 382, 21 June 1861, Page 3

CANTERBURY.

{From the Lytteiton Times.) CHItISTCHURCII TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

The monthly meeting of this association was held in the Town Hall, Christcliurch, and was well attended.

Mr. Connor having been called to the chair, opened the business of the evening by an appropriate speech on the evils of intemperance, and tho great work of temperance reformation, and concluded by calling on Mr. Thompson, who sung an appropriate song. Mr. Clemknts then addressed the meeting, and read extracts from the Alliance newspaper's report, of Sir G. Strickland's speech at the monster temperance meeting tat Leeds, on the 2nd February, giving statistics of.the consumption of spirituous and malt liquors, and proving that the licensing system had brought into existence 135,000 houses, being a public house for every thirty hotises in England and Wales; that eight million quarters of barley were consumed annually in the manufacture of malt, being half the produce of England and Wales ; that from sixty to one hundred millions sterling were spent annually in intoxicating drinks; and that sixty thousand of our fellow creatures died every year, in the British Isles from their use. He then read an extract from the Lj/ttelton Times May 25th, headed " The Temperance Family," and extracted from Salmon Fishing in Canada, and in very strong language showed the difference between the two papers he had quoted. He felt that the press was a mighty engine for weal or woe, and regretted that he had observed in tho New Zealand press a disposition to support the woe of the people. What motive could the editor have in publishing the article before them ? lie could not see any himself but a desire to divert some erring tempted creature from the path of virtue, and lead him to believe that the virtue of temperance was: nonsense, while the evil of drinking was the better course. Mr. Warner said he could not believe the statement made by the last speaker, for he had been registrar over five parishes in England for fourteen years, and during that time he had not recorded one death from intemperance. Mr. Thompson said he was not much of a public speaker, this being his first attempt. He knew that total abstinence was good, as it enabled him to support his family, and educate his children which he could not do when he followed the drinking customs of the day. Mr. Cooper then addressed the meeting, a highly amusing scene being enacted between him and Mr. Warner, who was called upon to give the name of the district in which he had officiated as registrar. The confusion in the Hall becoming considerable, Mr. Cooper called in the police to quell the disturbance.

Mr. M. B. llaut rose to address the meeting on the right of free discussion, and hoped the people of Christchurch would show the same liberality towards the promoters of total abstinence as they had done to the representatives of other opinions. He thought the fairest way, if any one in the meeting had anything to say in favor of drunkenness, was, that he should go up to the platform and not screen himself like a coward behind some person's hat, and annoy the meeting by his noise. [Here Mr. Hart was called upon to take the platform, which he did, doffing his coat, and commencing in a workmanlike manner.] He gave a graphic and highly interesting account of his life as a total abstainer, and also since he had given up the pledge, addressing the meeting at considerable length. In answer to a question as to why he was not a teetotaller, he replied, that as the proprietor of the White Hart he conld not consistently be so.

One of the company suggested that the White Hart should be thrown open as a Temperance Hall and lecture room. By this time the hall was unusually crowded, and the people excited ; when the chairman, having obtained a hearing, stated themeeting to be over, and that their next gathering would be held the last Saturday in June, at seven oclock.