THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9191, 14 September 1908, Page 5

THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

ADDRESS BY REV. L. M. ISITT. There whs a large attendance at the Town Hall last evening, -wh«n an address on the liquor question, in favour of nc-license, was given by the Rev. L. M. Isitt. 'i'l e chair was taken by the Rev. A T. Thompson, on the stage being also seated other leaders in the local r.o-license movement. The proceedings opened with a hymn, followed by a prayer by the Chairman. The Chairman stated that it was unavoidable that the Mayor could not preside. Mr Thompson stated that even in his own district he had betn confused with a namesake of his, also a clergyman, who had betn delivering lectures in favour of the continuation of licenses, and he dispelled this notion. He congratulated the lecturer on having fought manfully for the cause of no-license in the days when it; was a much more unpopular cry than now, and it was pleasing to see that he was still enthusiastically championing no-license. The Rev. Isitt, who was receive ! with applause, said it gave him a very great pleasure indeed to re-visit Masterton, where he took charge of his first church just after he had been married He informed his audience that he had, during the course of his campaign in New Zealand, been expelled by the Supremo Court of New Zealand from the Licensing Bench as being hopelessly afflicted with bias, but that was the only personal obstruction he had met with down to the past week. rev. lecturer explained that on his way down the Main Trunk line he hadj addressed a little open-air meeting at Taumarunui, thinking he could not better occupy his short stay there. When he first started his* address a / pistol fired down the street would not have hit even a cat. In the course of a few minutes a little cluster did gather, and as a result, apparently, he had been served three days ago by a policeman with a summons for obstructing the footway at Taumarunui. Passing on, the speaker said that he bslieved in the doctrine of hate to this extent —that he tinted with his whole heart the traffic which caused so much ruin and Buffering among his fellow men. Mr IsHt commented regretfully on the fact that there was too much apathy, even on the part of "teetotaller?," in regard to the evils of the drink traffic. The spectacle of a drunken man was too lightly regarded, and more enthusiasm was what the Noiicense Party were er deavouring to fctir up in regard to the horrors daily seen in connection with the awful traffic. 'lhe great fact which should be borne in mind by every person who had the interests of his fellow beings at heart was the fact that so many suffered through drink from no fault of their own. Thdre were the sober women who were tied to drunken husbands, the sober men tied to drunken wives, an-I the thousands upon thousands of children "damned" into the world rather than born into it through drunken parents. The speaker thought that the sufferings'of the children alone should rouse the people to a white heat of enthusiasm against the sale of strong drink. He instai.ced personal experiences re garding professions of self-sacrifice on the part of various people he had met whera the real spirit of self sacrifice was missing, a weakness too common, he thought, with persons who were at heart against the drink | traffic. Mr Isitt said he knew the history of Masterton and its people pretty well—he did not desire to be personal—and since he came he had made inquiries as to the welfare of certain p ople in whom he had been personally interested during his residence here. W ; ith sorrow he had heard how one had gone this way and another that—victims, sad victims, to the degrading drink. The speaker appealed strongly to his hearers to take a brosd and noble view of the whole question. Personally, he said, with great emphasis, that were his neck and throat as long as a giraffe's, and the imbibing of a glass of whisky gave him twenty times as much pleasure down every inch of that neck and throat as did the same quantity to the ordinary human throat, he would think he lived on a ltiw, contemptible level, if he did not sacrifice ;\n hour of that pleasure if such sacrifice meant to save one soul alone from thy danger of drink. The lecturer dec.lt Etrorgly with the question of prevention being better than cure, and asked his young men hearers in pa v ticular to set a good example, it was only reasonable to admit that so long as young people were taught or led to think by their elders' examples that it was expected of persons who were to "move in sociity" that they should use drink and not abuse it. there would always be those young men who would make the experiment, and some day. perhaps, be a curse to a poor woman's life. The speaker closed wicli an cloqu lit appeal to his hearers to assist -o remove the temptation. (Applause.) The Chairman statod '.hat no voceof th-inks was desired, and the meeting closed with a benediction invoked by the Rev. J. N. Buttle.