TEMPERANCE TALK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2241, 15 August 1891, Page 2

TEMPERANCE TALK.

The Rev. D. Dutton, Presbyteriai Minister, of Caversham, Dunedin, dolivera what lie termed " Plain, simple talk 01 Temperance," to a moderately larg< audience at the Oddfellows' Hall, Geraldine on Wednesday evening. The chair was oc cupied by Mr George Taylor W.C.T., of th< Welcome Retreat Lodge. Mr Dutton com menced by saying he felt it a great honoi to be identified with the temperance move ment. He believed it was the cause 03 God and the cause of humanity. WUhe drinl traffic in his opinion was the verj Beelzebub, and fruitful mother of many oJ the vices to which English-speaking people were subject to. And if we could get ric of this terrible evil we should get rid oi nine-tenths of the vices which produce sc mucn wretchedness and misery amougsl British people. Drink was the destroyer oi "home"andthe poison which robbed the mother of all her motherly instincts. Temperance people were said to be .guilty oi exaggerations. This he asserted was simplv impossible, for there was no paint sufficiently black to ! paint this evil in its natural colour. He was sure that if we could only see the effects of this traffic for 2i hours as the eye of God looks down upon it, we should, never survive the sight. It was too horrible for any human being to see and live. They were also told that temperance people were people of one idea. There was nothing reproachful in that. One idea sometimes covered a great many ideas, and the temperance movement while appearing to be one idea covered that which related to religion, commerce, our social life, and our political economy. Wilberforce and the men who acted with him were men of one idea, George Stephenson was a man of one idea, and it would take some time to go over the whole catalogue, of men of one idea, as described in English history. They should be men of one idea with regard to the temperance question, and, like they would hammer a nail, keep hammering away at it until they had got it clinched on the other side by prohibition. (Applause.) The speaker then referred to the great changes that had taken place with regard to this question. Public opinion had changed considerably. The teetotaller was no longer looked upon as a singular individual. His own profession had seen vast changes respecting this question. At one tjime men of his profession coilld not get along without a spirituous inspiration as well as a spiritual. In the theological colleges at Home at present, something like 90 per cent, of the students were total abstainers. Working men, medical men, and others were fast changing their opinions on this great question, and he hoped the time would not be far distant when they would see their one idea accomplished. They should set to work to educate the people. It was no use attempting to. carry prohibition in defiance of public opinion. 'He was a believer iji local 'option pure and simple. ' ' • At the conclusion of the lecture, on the motion of Mr Hammond, seconded by Mr. Aitken, a of thanks was pasXed to Mr J Dutton, and the rqeetmg closed. I