TOTAL ABSTINENCE MEETING.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 134, 1 September 1870, Page 6

TOTAL ABSTINENCE MEETING.

On Friday last the second public meeting of persons friendly to the formation of a Total Abstinence Society, in the Tuapeka district, was held in the Tuapeka Athenaeum. There was a very good attendance. The Rev. Dr. Copland occupied the chair, and delivered a very forcible address. He said he was glad to see such a numerous attendance. He thought the name " Total Abstinence Society " was too modest a title for such an important society, and that it should rather be called the health preserving society. In carrying out that thought the rev. gentleman referred to those individuals who had given way to the enticing cup, and who had become its slaves. It produced, he said, a slavery far worse than was to be found amongst the slaves in America. It was the parent of diseases of the very direst description, and in its worst features culminated in what was aptly termed delirium treinens. The most pitiable sight that could be witnessed was the trembling delirium who was so much the slave of his own fears that he would even rise from his bed and rush to his own destruction. That, however, although the worst feature of intemperance ? was not the only one,

Every organ of the body — the stomach, liver, and brain — were aifected ; and when a man, who indulged in the intemperate use of intoxicating drinks, sustained an injury to his body, it was found the wound was veiy difficult of healing. In advocating the claims of the society upon the public, he said it would do much to save from crime, for drunkenness and crime were very closely allied. The experience of our gaolers, magistrates, and judges all testified that crime was largely augmented by the prevalence of drunkenness. He would ask his audience to call to their minds the criminals who had been sent to gaol from the Tuapeka district alone, whose crime had been accelerated by their drinking habits, and every community was the same. Drunkenness led to vice, crime, and disease — it filled the hospitals and gaols, and if they only had a record of the suicides which had taken place, they would also find that drink was closely associated with them. These were some of the most degrading scenes of wretchedness which their society would be a protest against. If properly carried out, the society could only fail, not by the means employed, but by men failing to carry out the means. Seeing the principle of abstinence was so simple, so effectual, and within the reach of men who adopt it, why should so many look upon it with suspicion 1 Some people shook their heads as if some enactment of the moral law were to be injured by the society, whereas it must be admitted there was nothing in the Bible to enforce any human being to consume intoxicating drink. Some people said that it was necessary for their health to partake of some kind of drink in a moderate way, but he thought men who enjoyed health — and he considered that the great bulk of people who were able to do their ordinary work were in the enjoyment of health— did not require any such stimulants, and in cases of sickness, he thought it should be left to the medical man to advise in the matter. Total abstinence as it affected the community, he thought would be admitted to be perfectly allowable to be adopted by them. What then was there against it 1 Some urged the private interests of business— the nobblerising system had became so intimately associated with business thnt tiade could not be carried on without encouraging the di-inking customs. He might state that the chaplin of the Dunedin gaol attributed many of the cases which had come under his notice to the nobblerising system in business, by which men treated their customers, and became addicted to drink, and tampered with their employer's money. He would say that if a man found that the sys- ( tern placed such temptation before him, he had better let go his business altogether. Rather let the business man lower his prices or make an allowance in the shape of discount. If that plan were adopted he (the speaker) believed the sum deducted would be equally appreciated as if given for drink. He would now call upon the .Rev. Mr. Keall to address the meeting.

Mr. Keall said the address of Dr. Copland had suggested a few thoughts to his mind. The voice of total abstinence claimed a universal hearing — that voice called to them from the gaols, places of business, from pic-nic parties, and even from scenes of bereavement. The rev. gentleman referred to some remarks made by an Indian, who, in referring to the drinking customs, said — " You people of England say you feel the curse of drink, but it has grown up with you, and become an institution of your country. In India it is quite different — it is only recently the curse" was brought amongst us by your countrymen." He (Mr. Keall) took such a statement as very humiliating, for it applied to New Zealand as well as to India. Total abstinence, it must be remembered, was not to be placed before the word of God — it was only secondary and subsidiaryC It did not seek to go before the laws of God. It was only one means of lessening the practice of sin without attempting to take away its taint — that was left for the gospel to do. Total abstinence was a very similar agency in the social world to chambers of commerce in the commercial world. On the same principle as men of business associate together for the general good of trade, so these abstinence societies associate together for the moral and social advancement of the people. The drinking customs he thought extremely stupid in some of their manifestations ; and bearing out that statement, he related an incident which occurred on his way home from Tuapeka Mouth, where a man on horseback had travelled far out of his way, and was no sooner directed on his journey than he took a bottle from his pocket, and asked him (Mr. Keall) to have a " nip." There seemed to him something so stupid in some of the phases of the drinking habits that he wondered people would have anything to do with them. No doubt that bottle had something to do with the poor fellow going so far out of his way. He regretted to say that when a man was Irving to do good, there were always some who attempted to upset him and keep him down. The rev. gentleman here related the story of a man with whom he was acquainted in Canterbury, and who had become very much addicted to intemperance. He (Mr. Keall) got him to sign the pledge, which he kept for eight months, when a member of the firm by which he was

employed sent him away a journey to collect accounts. He kept all right till within a few miles of home, when he met an old friend of his who owed the firm an, account of eight years' standing. He presented the account, and his friend at once asked him to have a drop of something to drink. He avowed his total abstinence principles, but went into the public house to get settlement of the account. His friend, however, would not settle the account unless he took a drink, and the thought of being paid such an old account, and the strong solicitations of his would-be friend, induced him to partake of the cup which was the forerunner of his destruction. That day he went home as drunk as possible, and from that time went to the bad. He (Mr. Keall) shortly after that circumstance left Canterbury, but he had since heard that the poor fellow drank himself to madness, and drowned himself in the sea in a fit of delirium tremens. He would therefore strongly urge his audience not to tempt any man. Let those who will test people only test those with as much pluck as themselves, and when they saw a man aiming to do what was right, rather stretch out the helping hand to him than put a stumbling block in his way. The Chairman then asked Dr. Halley if he would say a few words. Dr. Halley thought he was hardly in place in saying anything upon that occasion; he was but a young total abstainer, and a poor speaker withal. However, although he had only adhered to the principle of total abstinence but a short time, he already felt the benefit of it to his health, and besides he was able to perform his work much better. Referring to the nobblerising system so common in this country, he said that he had tried on several occasions to break through the drinking customs of society as they existed in Lawrence. For instance, he and a friend would make a bet of £10 that they would not taste any intoxicating drink for a certain period, but before the time had expired they would meet together and agree to break their pledge. So he found that system would not succeed. He believed that the total abstinence movement was a good one, and deserved every encouragement; but he would not put it the way of a religion. He simply looked upon the drinking customs as a desperate disease in society, and, as the chairman had said at a previous meeting, it required a desperate rem.dy. When he joined the pledge himself, he did not feel anything to boast of; he felt rather ashamed than otherwise. People rallied him about the step he had taken, but, by taking it in a friendly and joking way, he had found the temptation very slight indeed. Tears ago he could not visit a patient but the bottle would be put before him ; and he well remembered visiting one a^ine distance away, and had no sooner got to the house than he overheard the good wife say, " Well, here is the Doctor, and we have not a drop in the house," and the husband was despatched to the nearest house to get a supply. The drinking customs had taken such possession of society that he could not even take a fee without asking the person to have a drink. With regard to a man pledging himself, he thought it was advisable to do so. He would not give twopence for a man who would not make his pledge public. There was a use in making it public. It became known and acted as a check upon the individual so that he could not suffer the ridicule which would follow his breaking it. He acknowledged the feeling was not a very high one, still it pointed to one of the good uses of the pledge. If at any time bis services were required by the society, he would gladly give them. He might, at some future time, be of some use to the society in presenting some facts in connection with the subject which he had noted from a physioliogical point of view, and he would gladly communicate them to the society. — (Applause.) The Chairman then urged upon the meeting the necessity of taking a desperate stand before the evil increased, and before the taste had been formed, and illustrated the point by the Greek fable of the Syrens, who were said to live on an island, and were believed to have the power of enchanting all who passed, so that they were riveted to the spot until they were starved to death. It was said of Ulysses when passing the island that he caused his ears to be stopped with wax, and his body to be tied to the mast, and gave instructions that if the Syrens should make any signal whatever, no heed was to be taken of them. So, he would say, if they were to make sure of escaping the evil of intemperance they must do likewise. If there were those who felt so confident that they would not fall, and did not require the assistance of the society, he might say to them the society wanted their assistance for its sake. The election of office bearers then took place, when the following gentlemen were duly elected: — President, The Rev. Dr. Copland ; Secretary, Mr. Crow ; Treasurer, Mr. A. M'Nicoll ; Committee — Messrs. James Robertson, Twigge, Coverlid, RoberW shaw, Niddrie, Menzies, jun., Davift^ Macdonald, Bennett, Blewitt, Humphrey, M'Lelland, J. M'Neill, Rev. W. Keall, and Dr. Halley. Several gentlemen present at the meeting then signed the pledge, and, the meeting was brought to. a. close,