MR GREEN’S LECTURE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1172, 1 May 1884, Page 3

MR GREEN’S LECTURE.

A meeting of the Blue Ribbon Army was belli in the Volunteer Hall, Temuka, last Tuesday evening, at which Mr M. W. Green, M.H.R., of Dunedin, delivered an address. After singing a hymn the Rev. Mr Hamilton, who presided, read a chapter from the Bible, and the Rev. D. Gordon engaged in prayer. The Rev. Chairman introduced the speaker of the evening, whom he characterised as a bold and fearless advocate ef total abstinence. Mr Green, who was received with great applause, said that all humanity were interested in the cursed traffic of drink. They occupied a common platform in danger with regard to it. It might be a member of any family, brother, or still worse, sister, that would fall a victim to the curse of drink. There was danger to all. They were standing on the ground of common danger so far as this monstrous evil was concerned. The reason a certain Temperance Order was not progressing was that it was not aggressive. The reason the Bine Ribbon Army was spreading was because it was founded on religious principles. As soon as tbe people began to seek help from God it began to spread, and there was now an uprising of the people in all parts of the world to wipe out (he stain. As the people became educated temperance would spread, and in the end the traffic would be swept off the land. So sure as the sun shines so sure is the drink traffic doomed. There were people who did not believe in the drastic measures they advocated. They said, Why not confine yourselves to temperance 1 He would not reply to them. All that could be said in favor of moderation was of no avail when men still drank to excess, and when moderate drinkers were daily becoming habitual drunkards. Whilethere was one who could take drink without doing himself harm, there were ten who fell a victim to it. Where there was an attempt at moderation it generally led to giving up to the destroying evil altogether. Dining the last week of 1883 and the first week of 1884, tha Temperance Alliance paper of England published a list of the results of & drmk as follows : —26 perilous ac* cideets ; 13 robberies ; 5 cases of drunken insanity ; 63cagis of drunken omrages and violent assaults ; 20 cases of drunken stabbiugs, cuttings and woundings ; 5 cases of drunken cruelty to children ; 74 assaults on women ; 13 cases of iuvenile intoxication ; 70 drunken assaults on constables ; 94 premature, sudden, or violent deaths from drunkenness ; 18 cases of attempted suicide through drink ; 15 cases of suicide; 23 cases of manslaughter, or minder. There was a catalogue of the horrible results from drink for two weeks, and he was sure there were many which the paper never heard of. The deaths were absolutely caused by the excessive indulgence in the drink. If they could only know the amount of sorrow caused by what had occurred during those two weeks they would all do their best to crush out this terrible evil. The speaker then told the story of a man (who was once a constable in Timaru) who took an hotel in Lyttelton and hia wife became a drunkard. She was in the habit of cry'ng out ‘ murder’ when she was drunk, and the husband, to stop her, put a gag in her mouth, with the result that lockjaw set in and the woman died. He was found -Tiiilty of murder and sentenced to death, but wns reprieved, and has been over since in gaol. A man who was in an honorable position was induced by a desire for an easy life and wealth to enter into that cursed traffic, which all right-thinking people must regard as dishonorable, with the result that he became the murderer of the mother of his children. ‘ Oh, never bring your wife anil children into this traffic, for the result will be moral degradation.’ When residing in Victoria he"visited a person who had been bred and educated a lady. Owing to illhealth she was induced to take drink, with the result that she contracted drunken habits, was divorced from her husband, and sunk till sha was sent to gaol for stealing a watch from a gentleman at the midnight hour. How many like Iter, prowling about at night and following an unholy calling, were brought to it by drink. He then proceeded to dwell on the necessity of legislative enactments to put down the traffic. If the temptation to drink were removed there would be no drinking,and that was the reason that they sought legislative enactments to reduce the number of houses where drink was sold. Efforts had been made in Parliament, and he would say ‘ Do your best by your vote to help this work. Do all you can to remove these temptations, so that men will go home to their wives instead of the public house, and yon will be doing a great work.’ Lookitur at it from a Political Economist’s point of view, lie would ask, Would they have the great depression they were passing through only for ibis great evil 'I They would not. They used to consider once that two millions

were spent in drink, but on looking over smmi Blue Books lie found that two millions did not cover if. Atkmson, at Dunedin, said three ami three quarter millions were spent in diink and tobacco. Only half a million was soent on tobacco, so that left three and a quarter millions for drink, or f 5 10s a year each. That meant £27 a year to a family of four persons —a man, his wife, and two children. Yet this drink did not give strength to carpenter or blacksmith. It injured the heart and liver as well as the brain. Alcohol was an injurious ingredient, and the organs of digestion could not perform their functions until it was expelled from the system. Then what did it cost, and what did it come from 1 Lord Chief Justice Hall said that one-tenth of the crimes came from drink, and he believed that was the rule. They had lunacv. The lunatic asylum of Dunedin cost £150,000, and the medical attendants there told him that four fifths of the lunacy was caused by drink. Count up the amount it cpsts in all the other provinces. Then there were the hospitals. After holidays there were more than the usual number in the hospitals—sent there by drink. Then think of the Industrial schools and their cost to the colony, all the result of drink. Then the loss of time to men while drinking. Taking all these things into account ho would say that the loss to the colony was five millions per year, owing to the drink traffic. There was £70,000 spent per annum in relieving the poor, but what was that to what was spent in drink. If a man for 30 years saved one shilling per day he would have a competency for the rest of his life, and if men thought of this they would have the enlightened selfishness to save their money in order to banish poverty from the land, and dry the tears of the widows and orphans w ho were suffering excruciating tortures through drink. Why should they contribute towards making the publican and bis wife prosperous, while thsir own homes were bare and their wife living in misery. Let them be men, and say to their appetite, ‘ Down.’ Let them be free, and God will give them strength to resist the temptation. He then told the story of a small wife who sewed her big, drunken husband in a sheet, and gave him such a beating that she made him take the pledge and made a perfect cure of him. This was a cure that was not applicable on all accasions, but wives should do all they could to break off their husbands from the cursed irfluence of drink. He then urged the people to do all they could to remove the cause of all the misery. He believed temperance was the handmaid of religion, and unless men were made sober they could not be made religious. While lie would not say that a Christian who took a little drink was committing sin, he would say the higher principle of religion was entire abstinence. He urged them to take the pledge and don the blue ribbon. (Applause). The Rev. D. Gordon proposed a vote of thanks to Mr Green, to whom he referred ns having gained a victory over free thinkers in Dunedin, lie expected that some result would come from the temperance movement going on at pre sent, and that drink would be removed altogether in time. After some humorous remarks, he moved the vote of thanks. Mr A. Bussell seconded the motion, and characterised Mr Green as the bir Wilfred Lawson of New Zealand. He knew the constable and his wife referred to by Mr Green. A finer man or woman he never knew, but they wore ruined by drink. The motion was carried by acclamation. In reply, Mr Green said be had no right to the title of the Sir Wilfred Lawson of New Zealand. Six William Fox was best entitled to that. Ha urged them to sign the petition that was going round to support the Bill which he intended to introduce into Parliament. Ho explained that the Bill provided that every woman of 21 years of ngs could vote, that the people could say whether they would have public houses or not, and that it would be penal for people to seil drink to children. After singing a hymn, the proceedings terminated in the usaal manner. Several persons donned the blue ribbon.