NO-LICENSE RALLY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 86, 2 October 1911, Page 4

NO-LICENSE RALLY.

GATHERING AT THE THE ATI! H ROYAL. There was a big gathering at the Theatre Royal last night for the NoLicense rally. The Rev. J. W. Burton presided, and the Revs. R. J. Liddell and 11. T. Roseveare were also on the platform, with Mesdames Douglas, Liddell and Gilbert, representing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Captain Adams and Envoy Hewitt, repreacnlinf» the Salvation Army. After the opening hymn prayer was offered by the Rev. Roseveare.

The first address was given by the Rev. James Dawson, organising secretary of the Xew Zealand Alliance. The. speaker said he had chosen to address the people specifically on the moral aspect of prohibition. Each one of the ten commandments called for the death of the liquor traffic, for it was in direct antagonism to each and every one of them. Anything that injured man must be prevented, for man's interest was supreme on this earth, and his welfare must be considered before propertv or anything else. The speaker quoted'from the Old Testament the verse to the effect that if an ox gored a man the ox should be stoned. If the owner knew that the ox was a dangerous one, and had gored before, then not only should the ox be stoned but the owner should be put to death. He could not conceive of a more striking type of the liquor traffic than that of a goring ox, with its cloven feet and habit to injure. When an ox gored a man the only safe thing was to destroy it, for men were never safe from it. That was very true of the liquor traffic, and the time had come when the liquor traffic should be stopped in its operation. The speaker pointed out that, no licenses to sell liquor in New Zealand were granted for later than June next, and they would not be renewed unless the people voted to continue the existing licenses. They, as reformers were tolerant, but they would not be tolerant to this injurious thing. Take their own town. Were not the beßt business sites in the town in the hands of the liquor-sellers. If there was a sale of cattle they wanted a special license to sell drink, or at an agricultural show. They lost no chance of pushing their insidious business on the people. ' Had it injured anyone? Aye, thousands of men and women in the children. Over 1.1,000 convictions for drunkenness were recorded in New Zealand last year and over 7000 of these were first offenders. And this meant, many a heartache and many a hen.rt-break recorded. Sorrow and degradation had come to many a home year after year through drink. Had the drink ox gored any? It had. He told of the drowning of a mother and two children through a husband's drunkenness, in the northern districts not so long ago. Did the owners of the drink ox know? The brewers were not the owners, and the publicans were not the owners, but the voters were the owners of the drink ox in -New Zealand, for without the votes of ihe people for continuance there could he no liquor licenses and no liquor business. Continuance meant a continuance, of all the evils and horrors attending on drink, and it was' only fair that the children who were horn to live should nave that life free from the temptnh'oTi and the evils of the liquor;traffic. He sought to impress on each person present that each was responsible for the continuance or the abolition of the liquor trade. One continuance vote might turn the scale so that the drink ox should continue his fell work of destruction. The liquor ox ought to die from June 30 next. He urged them to register their votes for liberty, for freedom, for home, for their boys and girls. They could abolish the bars if they were true to their God and their opportunity. Colonel Birkenshaw followed," and spoke at white heat for some twenty minutes or so. As one went round the world, he said, seeing the main thoroughfares, and in the side streets the chambers of horrors there, one realised the dangers that lurked in the walk of life. Therefore it was imperative that we should spend our lives in lives of service. It was love that was the centre of life. There wasn't much love for humanity in the brewers; there was more love for revenue. Drink had sent mothers to the workhouse at Home, and children to homes for paupers, too. But in this Dominion they would vote it out. What was the good of the drink to the people? Every crime had its origin more or less in drunkenness. What hovels the drink' soddened slums were, what dens of misery! He had seen London by night. He had seen a baby drinking beer out, of a feeding-bottle, and mothers giving gin-soaked rags to their infants, damned in the world us soon as they entered it. He told of the funeral of a woman drunkard, whose three-year-old baby was taken home by the grandmothers and made drunk with brandy and port wine. Then the speaker came to the condition of New Zealand to-day. If the Dominion of our children and grandchildren was to be one of libertv. of security and prosperity, and morality,,-these pitfalls of perdition must be closed, in the name of childhood, so that the children would make the world of : to-moiirow better than the world of to-day. The most glorious duty in life was to save men. and to save 'men they would vote against the drink traffic. ' Colonel Birkenshaw spoke warmly concerning the suggestion made, not so very long ago here that General Booth was in favor of the drink traffic. This was what he said: "Where drink has been banished, drunkenness and crime have decreased, and as for revenue, what would become of a man if he were to suok his own blood and eat his own flesh? How can a kingdom flourish that lives on the destruction of its subjects and that draws revenue from their very graves?" Was that a plain enough statement by the Grand Old Man of the Army? His experiences the world over had made him a Prohibitionist. The Salvation Araiv was now, ever had been, and ever would be, against the drink traffic—lock, stock and barrel. He concluded a striking peroration with the battleery that "IScw Zealand expects, God expects, mothers, brothers, fathers expect., that every man and woman will do their dutv."

The Rev. B. J. T.iddell moved n vofv of thanks to the speakers, and this v.-is seef:ndtd by Mr. 0. H. Maunder and carried by hearty aeelamation. Til'- meeting concluded with the T!eiediction.