TEMPERANCE DEMONSTRATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2393, 9 August 1892, Page 2

TEMPERANCE DEMONSTRATION.

Under the auspices of the Geraldine .Prohibition League a tea and public meeting was held in the Volunteer Hall, Geraldine, on Friday evening, when there was a great number of temperance workers, their friend i, and supporters present. The five tables at the tea were amply supplied with edibles, and were presided over by Mesdames Dunlop, A. McKenzie, Sutherland, Patrick, Bowkett, Scroggie, and Wallack, and Misses McKenzie, Coombs, Bowkett (2), Fyfe, Dunlop, and E, Sherratt. At the after-meeting there was a large and enthusiastic audience present, the principal attraction being the address to be delivered by the Rev. L. M. Isitt, of Christchurch. The chair was occupied by Mr F. R. Flatman, and also on the platform were Mrs J. L. Wright (lady evangelist), the Rev. W. Woojlaa, and iy|V W. E. Barker, Mrs J. L. Wright, who was the first to address the meeting, said that Prohibitionists at the present time were called extremists. If that were so she was an extremist, for she believed it was right, just, honest, and fair to try and remove from our fair laud a curse which had blighted many homes and done much harm. Some people considered that the evi] should be removed s)nw|y-.ryery slowly- ami ttjat the Prohibition method was too hasty. ‘She referred such people to England, where 470 Acts of Parliament had been passed within the last two centuries to regulate tllP liquor traffic, and how far, she asked, have they been successful I Slfe appealed to parents to look to their sons and daughters, and have this tide of iniquity removed from their midst. Probably before the present session of Parliament closed the franchise would be given to women, _ She pointed out to women their responsibility in the mutter, and asked them to make a little sacrifice by exchanging their light reading for Parliamentary nows. She wished them to educate themselves in tho measures before the House, so that when tlm time came they coqld decide for themselves on any matter affecting their welfare. <

The Rev. L. M. Isitl, who wa s received with loud applause, said he was very glad to have the privilege of once more addressing a Geraldine audience, especially such a representative one as he saw before him. He reminded them of the present position, of Prohibition matters compared with the last time he was in Geraldine, and he challenged contradiction when he said that during the past eighteen mouths Prohibition had made more strides than it had in the previous live years. (Applause). It was now being recognised more clearly that the question will no longer bo shirked, and that legislators will soon have to speak with no uncertain sound on tho matter. Speaking on the female franchise question, he said some men, in ridicule, asked, “ What is the average woman V* (Laughter.) “ Well, after all,” he asked, “ what is the average man ?” The average man’s god was his pewter pot. What was more disgraceful to our nineteenth century civilisation ? There were hundreds of men simply demented by their love of beer. They worked, they gave their votes, and they sacrificed everything for the gratification of this appetite. And yet the average man rose superior to the average woman ! If they compared the average woman with the average man he was sure the woman would have the best of it. (Laughter and applause.) It was said that women were too glib-tougued ; but if they could show him a woman who could talk more glibly, emptily, and blatantly than that old woman the Hon. Mr Fish he would like to know where she is to be found. (Laughter and groans.) Mr Isitt next moved his audience to laughter by saying that he was supposed to be a dead man. Mr Justice Dennistoun, to use a legal and not a vulgar term, had “ quashed him,” and he was said to have died on the 20th of last month. This had been immediately signalised by a number of hotels in

Christchurch raising their flags half-mast high. In a hotel in Rangiora was a miniature cemetery, and on each gravestone beneath the hie facet was written the name of a Sydenham Licensing Committeeman and the words “ Departed in peace.” He could assure them that this was not right, for they were not dead, dying, or thinking of dying, but were never more jubilant and determined than at that present moment. At Rangiora he had made the remark that they would have to spend more money in teaching Mr Justice Deuuistoun law, but the Christchurch Press—that pure paper, that independent paper, that honorable paper—declared that this was an example of Isitt’s impertinence. (Laughter.) He wished to say that Mr Justice Dennistoun, the lawyers, and the police were in a fog over the Sydenham matter. New Zealand had one Licensing Act, and it was more wonderfully and fearfully made than all the 470 Licensing Acts of England. According to this Act they had closed the hotels in Sydenham not as Prohibitionists, but because they had concluded that they were legally entitled to do so. (Applause.) His opinion on the matter was that Mr Justice Dennistoun had not “the pluck of his convictions.” (Applause.) It was said that he (Mr Isitt) had by his action in the matter committed perjury. If he thought for a moment that he had done so he would at once tender his resignation as a minister. He still declared that they had acted legally in the matter. It now stood : Heads his side wins, and tails the other side loses. (Applause.) If his side lost he believed that the people throughout the colony would rise and say, “ We will not be ruled by the minority, and we will have the direct veto Vy (Applause.) By obtaining Prohibition was the only effectual way of dealing with the liquor traffic, for this evil was not one of mushroom growth. Dr Barnardo’s agent, when in New Zealand, had said that 85 per cent, of the children brought under his care had drunken parents. There was nothing to be surprised at in this. Turning to France, the country of light wines, where there was once very little dire drunkenness, to-d-y France was running neck and neck with England to decide which should be the most drunken nation on the earth. Germany was passing stringent laws to restrict the evil. The people of Russia were drowning their miseries in drunkenness. In the United States of America drink destroyed four times as many people as were destroyed by the bayonet and bullet, although the period included the bloody war between the North and South. Coming to New Zealand, he said if there were not as much drinking to-day as twenty year's ago there was still twenty and thirty times more drink than God wills there should be. Of all the curses in the world there was none greater than the liquor traffic. Some people said, “ Why do you go the whole hog or none in this question I If you would go in for making publicans supply pure, unadulterated grog you will have our sympathy.” If they thought he was going to gain their sympathy by trotting round the country to bring about a reform that people might be supplied with pure grog they were very much mistaken. Others said, “ Why don’t you regulate the traffic ?*’ It was despicable for them to come and ask the Pro-

hibitiou party to do that which, they themselves ought to have done long ago if they could. They could no more regulate tho drink traffic than they could fire off a gun gradually. They need not think, however, that Prohibition would be gained at a jump, for they would yet see ebb and flow, ebb and flow, check and failure ; but still there was only one way of dealing with this evil and that was to kill it outright. Speaking of compensation, the Bishop of Christchurch had said that the men who will close a hotel without compensation are a mean and niggardly lot. He thought that the Bishop, like Mr Justice Dennistoun, was, a little bit “gone” on this subject. Could anyone imagine for a moment that if the publicans bad any legal claim to compensation that they would get down on their bended knees and say “ Please give us compensation; it is ours legally.” Mr Isitt next had a rap at the Press of the colony, which had put forth afl sorts of garbled statements. He specially referred to the Christchurch. Press. When he spoke at a meeting he went to the reporter of the Press and said there would bo legal proceedings based cm the report, and asked him to be very careful about it, and he was told by the reporter that he knew his own business best; ;(nd when the report carpe out it was false from beginning to end. Ho had been told by some people that Prohibition was an infringement of the liberty of the subject. For his part he thought that the opening of publichouses, which lowered the value of property near them, and also helped to increase the taxes on the general public for tho maintenance of gaols, asylums, and other institutions, was a far greater infringement of public liberty. Ho wished to abide by the will of the majority in this matter, and if his party could educate the minority into a majority ho maintained that it was the action of a cur for the opposite party to whine over the matter. (Applause.) Referring t(t Prohibition in America, he said ij; was reported by some papers as being iv

complete failure, and here he might tell of an instance of newspaper unfairness. When Dr Lucas, of Canada, came to New Zealand the Christchurch Press sent a man to interview him. He (Mr Isitt) said to Dr Lucas, “The Christchurch Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette has sent a man to interview you, and there’s some little game on here. If he thinks you are a weak man, and you make one or two weak points, we shall see two columns of it in the Press, but if you say something strong we shall hear nothing of the interview.” Dr Lucas did say some strong things, and gave the reporter the addresses of prominent persons who would endorse his statements —and they had not seen a line of that interview in the Press from that time to the present. (Laughter.) To those who argued that if Prohibition was in force it would foster sly-grog-selling, he would say, “ Let us have Prohibition and a little sly grog-selling for a change.” Sir Robert Stout, speaking on the drink question, had said, “I have heard again and again of those who have been passing from time to time into eternity, betraying to their friends and relations, their conceptions of this Heavenly home, to which they were hastening, but 1 never have heard of a Christian man be he Presbyterian, Episcopalian, or Methodist, that has dared to say that he expected to find in those heavenly regions “ grog shops.” “ And,” Sir Robert added, “I hold the religion of that man cheap, and question his sincerity, who, while he declares he is a Christian, does not do his best to make this earth as much like the Heaven he longs for as he can.” These were the words of a secularist, and it was a shameful fact that his position on the drink question was greatly in advance of many Christian people. Mr Isitt spoke for over two hours, and delivered a very impressive and telling address. The above is only a very much condensed report of what he said. At the conclusion of Mr Isitt’s speech an opportunity was given anyone opposed to his views to ask questions, but there being no response Mr W. E, Barker moved, .and Mr Dalton seconded, the following resolution, which was carried unanimously. heartily approves of Mr Joyce’s Local Option Bill, and protests against the granting of compensation to publicans in any form whatever.” The Rev- Mr Woollass moved a vote of thanks to the ladies who had assisted with the tea, and the chairman, and choir. During the evening a combined choir from the several churches sang a number of sacred selections in a pleasing manner.