NO-LIQUORISMS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 244, 21 February 1911, Page 3

NO-LIQUORISMS

MR. POOLE'S WITTICISM AND WISDOM. ''We are the extremes in many ways. Mr. Taylor is an evidence that ail people belonging to the temperance forces are not fat, and I am an evidence that all of them are not thin! (Laughter). Abstinence from alcohol does not rob me of a robust frame. At any rate I. am still visible to indicate that a man can grow fat as a prohibitionist, and I hope to be visible for some time to come! (Renewed laughter and applause).

".Money is expended time after time to create efficiency. It is best to raise a healthy people. Where is it possible to find a healthier lot of children in the world than in New Zealand?"

"We pay a heavy figure to medical science to look after our health. The approachment of plague gives them concern, and the appearance of a sick rat at one of our ports startles everybody to the fact that the health of the community is in danger." Alcohol, he continued, was one of the greatest curses of the day as far as the health of the people was concerned, and was one of the predisposing causes of consumption and a very fruitful cneourager of cancer.

"The inspection of our food supplies is very stringent in its methods, but how much more necessary it it that we should ,know something about other things that are consumed in liquid form. Liquor is sa'id to be the devil in liquid form, but I am exceedingly anxious to put him into liquidation!" (Laughter).

"To be alcoholised is to be sterilised."

Mr. Poole described how rura was manufactured from molasses. He spoke of the Chinese workers, their hosing down (so that they would not run away with the sugar!), the roaches, and the shovelling of the filth and rats and roaches out of the way so that the pumping might proceed! "\o wonder," he said, "people got 'rats' after drinkin" stuff like that!" (Laughter). ° "I am not a joy-killer, and I have been able to knock about among my fellow men and not .be called a 'wowser.' I have always believed in every man enjoying the full proportion of happiness and prosperity, and because I hold that opinion I say that the drunken man is not the one that is going to be selected in the future when jobs are going." "The liberty of the subject! It is wise that we cannot have the indiscriminate use of our liberty. The liberty of a man ends when it begins to encroach upon another man's liberty." "The railway companies of the United States cannot afford to risk the lives and property of the people by allowing a drunken man to drive the locomotive, and so they make everyone joining the service sign the pledge*.—(Applause).— And any servant found consuming liquor while on duty is liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding 50 dollars, or one month's imprisonment, or both." "The trains travel faster in America than they do here—at any rate, faster than the one we came up in from Hawera to-day. 1 think the water must have gone off tin boil at least half-a-dozen times! —(Laughter).—l would advise Mr. Okey to pay a little attention to this matter." (Applause).

"The evidence is beyond contradiction that the consumption of liquor contributes largely to the increase in cases of insanity." (A voice: "Question!") "Well, if the interjector will come up to my home in Auckland I will show him all the records, and they will satisfy him. I don't wish you to think I am telling lies; I don't want to." (Interjector.- "You can't help it!"). "I suppose that is the penalty one has to pay for being a politician! For myself"—here Mr. Poole looked round at' his fellow M.P.'s on either side of the tabic—"l endeavor to stick to the truth' as closely as possible!"

It has been said that no-license reduces employment. So it does. The hangman, the undertaker, the gaoler and the policemen have nothing to do, and it would be all the better i'f they never had any. When lawyers, doctors and hangmen are busy, the community is in a bad state." "Fifty millions of people in America live under no-license, and the country has not gone to blazes yet!" MR. TAYLOR'S REPLY TO MR ENROTH. "Not right to vote away the liquor .business and their property! I can convince Mr. Km-oth in a few words that he is hopelessly in the wrong. The publican obtains the license for a year only, although he might hold it for'iio years,' during which public opinion often changes, and when a renewal is asked for the people say they will not renew the contract, but the publican still has his section, his house and his furniture—' even down (o the spittoon! The license is not his; it is yours. You only sold it to him for a year.—(Applause).— Mr. Knroth's talk about compensation was thoughtless flapdoodle.—(Roars of laughter).—What about the compensation due to our side—the ruined homes, broken hearts, the shame, degradation', and utter misery of it all? Why, the Trade would be hopelessly bankrupt!" "We can't settle the question of religion by popular vote: we won our religious privileges at tremendous cost, but we do settle lots of moral questions in this way. What about bigamy? A man may hold all sorts of opinions'a bout how many wives he should have, but let him put those ideas into practice! The police would soon be on to him!" "It is net a question of opinion, but whether the monopoly that was created l>y law in its inherent right should not be suppressed by the .same force that brought it into existence." "I have yet to learn that strychnine is a beverage. Liquor is a great restorative! I have seen siiake>. insects mid all sorts of things in it—but Ihey were all dead!" (The audience was convulsed). "Poison always hurts. The. statement that alcohol is not a poison is diametrically opposed to the opinion of 05 out of every 100 men who arc able to give an expert opinion."