THE NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3043, 13 November 1908, Page 5

THE NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN.

MR BEDFORD'S FINAL ADDRESS.

The Masterton Town Hall was crowded last evening when Mr H. D. Bedford gave the last address of his present visit on the subject of No License, the title of which was "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about No-License districts." The chair was taken by Mr D. McGregor, jnr., President of the No-License League, the stage' being occupied by members of the NoLicense party and other sympathisers with the cause. The Chairman made a few remarks in reference to the work of the No-License League, stating that the efforts of the League had been marked with the utmost enthusiasm. Since as early as July last a large number of members had neen engaged in various tasks in connection with the campaign, and the young people in particular had by their organisation and energy left very f?w, if any, names off the roll. He predicted that Eketahuna would give a different set of figures this election. (Applause). On one hand it was the moral, social and physical ! welfare of the people as opposed to the brewer's gold. (Hear! Hear!) No brewer's gold could, however, secure an address such as that given by Mr Bedford on Sunday evening last. He then called upon Mr Bedford to give his address. (Applause.)

Mr Bedford was received with enthusiasm on rising to speak. He said a great trade was on its trial, and he intended to contrast it with other trades and professions. First came the school, which trained the mind, and then the Ministry, which trained the moral, and after that came the kitchen, the baker, and all other trades, which made for the physical good of the people. Call on the trade to say. what it did for the people, and what must it reply, but that the more it flourished the worse it was for the physical and moral welfare of the community. This it could not deny. Ihe business of the brewer weakened the army and navy's efficiency on which rested the entire welfare of the nation. American and English ad-

mirals had denounced it for its evil effects. The labouring man then rose up and said to the brewer that his trade made a man less efficient for his work —made him unfit for his position. Tbe speaker recited a list of cases, which he read out of the Masterton papers in which various deaths had occurred attributed to drink. This was what the trade did for the community. No than 16 deaths had occurred in the' Mastertun electorate since last election through drink, two being caused through drunken quarrels, and two persons being burnt to death. Then Mr J. Hessey—-who gave the NoLicense party his authority for saying that he was previously the trade's nominee on the Masterton Licensing Bench, and who voted continuance —now turned round and declared himself for No-License. Labour leauers of Great Britain in large numbers declared against the enormous expenditure on drink there, and said such expenditure robbed labour of its just dues in the way of work. Richard Bell, M.P., of England, had denounced in the most scathing terms the effects of the liquor traffic, and asked the people of his country to wipe out such a traffic, and if it were not possible to do this then to support local option to > its fullest extent. Other great leaders of trades and labour unions and united industrial manufacturers at Home were quoted as being bitterly opposed to the trade of the brewer For every £IOO passed through Speight's brewery only £7 was handed over to the labourers, the next lowest trade giving £2l out of each £IOO to the worker. In Wellington and InvercargiU labour had also indicted liquor as the worst employer of labour in the world. Then the State called the traffic up to judgment, as, tor over £700,000 received in direct revenue from liquor sources, the regulation of the "trade" cost £900,000, meaning a dead loss to tha Dominion of £200,000. In January last these facts were published, and a table proving generally the loss to the Dominion on the drink investment, and yet the "trade" had not in the long interval intervening denied the truth of the figures. To-morrow morning, however," said the speaker, "they will publish a table of their own, when it is too late for the No License party to deal with it effec- j tively." Ben Tillet, one of the World's labour leaders, had said that one instance of the trade's influence in itself was sufficient. From one drunkard alone, in this quoted instance, in 75 years 200 thieves, 248 chronic invalids, and 90 fallen women were 'the progeny, and they had cost the State £250,000. On one Saturday night in Masterton recently 1,500 men were counted as having entered the hotels in two'hours, and yet—business was slack! What mattered it, again, to the brewer, if Dr. Beatty, of Auckland, declared that the chief cause of insanity was intemperance? It was a strong but true charge to level at the brewer, i also, that last year five thousand first j offenders paid the penalty in New Zealand for drunkenness. The brewer would require toll of another five thousand next year, and more in the years to come —would it be his hearers' boys and girls? The brewer, in answer to all the charges made against him, might plead not guilty, and say he was not to blame. Perhaps not. but he'would turn round and say that No- | License had been a failure in America and elsewhere, No-License had produced more drunkenness, had slackened off trade, and so forth. The brewer, however, forgot to answer the long indictment against himself, but the speaker proposed to answer the brewers' charges [against NoLicense. Coming to America, the statement in a "trade" advertisement in the morning paper that though Maine went for prohibition, and other States followed, they went back to license later on, and only three million people were now under No-License. Unfortunately for the "trade," these figures were true over thirty years ago, but now in the United States forty million people were under No-License. T he speaker produced an inset to be circulated by the "trade," which declared that various States in America had "recently abandoned No-License." Mr BQdfojrjJ went through each State

mentioned seriatum, and declared that in them all large numbers of towns had declared for No-License. (Applause.) The speaker heard that the Rev. Thomson was to come to Masterton on the night before the election, and was to speak for the "trade." Mr Bedford compared him to a "short-tailed bull moving round in fly time." The Governor of West Virginia had declared that nothing would induce the people of that State to return to the old license conditions. Mr Bedford then traversed the statements made regarding the alleged increase of drunkenness in Invercargill on the lines of his address ;n Masterton on his first visit this year. The brewers' figures were got from the Government returns, and were so stated as to make false positions regarding the consumption of liquor in No-License districts appear to be facts. The brewers' arithmetic made an increase of the liquor consumed in all No-License areas, whereas as a matter of fact, in not one No-License area had there been a decrease of less than 50 per cent. In Dunedin hotels for the last two months advertisements were to be seen that "religious services would be held every Sunday evening in the Theatre Royal by the Rev. W. Thomson." Huw great was the morality of the brewers just a month or two before the poll! The fact was the liquor people were getting concerned about the influence of liquor on the morals of the people, and were trying to make a great pretence of catering for morality, an idea which the speaker ridiculed greatly. UnJer License in Inver- J cargill a list of tragedies had occurred through liquor, which the speaker read to his audience. While, since the introduction of No-License, not a single tragedy had occurred. The brewers had falsely stated, said Mr Bedford, that the No-License Party had only quoted the first year's figures for their various statements of the effects, of No License in NoLicense areas, and he quoted instances to show the last year's figures under No-License were considerably I better from the No-License point of view than those for under the first year. The "crimes" which were alleged to be so rapidly inci-eas-ing were by-law cases for cycle riding on footpaths and such like. The speaker declared that "the poor policemen having so little to do now in Invercargill, that in sheer desperation they made up for lost drink crimes as best they could." (Laugh' ter.) The figures for Ashburton, Oamaru and Clutha for crime under No-License showed such a marked decrease that the "trade" would not give the public the benefit of them, but the speaker did so at length. At Balclutha not a single inebriate last year had been arrested for drunkenness, where the drink was procured in the town, and only one case of any other sort of insobriety. Then again, not a single case of assault or obscene language had been recorded, and yet the "trade" declared that the moral tone of the community was lowered! In Greytown a solicitor had told the speaker that the accommodation at the Martinborough hotels was such that a large board-ing-house in the town did a flourishing business. He also had heard the accommodation at the Masterton hotels criticised. As opposed to such things, the speaker quoted persons who declared that the boarding-houses in No-License areas were as good—and even better — tfian the hotel accommodation in Licensed areas. The speaker produced the Government return for 1906 regarding sly grog-selling in the Dominion, and in this he : -I , that in Auckland city alnne there j were twenty-six cases, while in ~

the six No-License districts put together only twenty-two cases weie recorded. (Applause.) The figures regarding the amount o/ the fines levied for sly grog-selling showed Invercar- i gill to have accounted for £45 in a j period during which the other cities j read Wellington £39, Christchurch £420, Auckland £490, and Wangatiui £125. The Inspector of Police for Invercargill had said sly-grog selling had been reduced to a minimum, and yet the "trade" declared the opposite. Criticising the recent advertisement or the liquor party's, the speaker showed the figures quoted therein regarding the number of cases of drunkenness in Invercargill was made up from returns from areas under license, .and the Sergeant of Police had said most of the inebriates in Invercargill got their liquor out of the No-License area. For seven weeks prior to November 2nd, not a solitary occupant was found in the Ashburton police cells. Was there ever such a record in Masterton? Ashburton had one prohibited person at present to Masterton's 60. There was a lot of talk about the depression in business in No-License towns, but was not the business of the whole Dominion slack during the past year or so? Mr Bedford said a reliable wholesale house manager in Invercargill had told him that since No-License was introduced hardly a wholesale house had not increased the size of its premises in the town, and two new wholesale houses had been opened. Regarding the increase in the number of debt cases in j Invercargill, there had been four I hundred fewer under No-License than for a corresponding period under license, and thirty fewer distress warrants issued. No medical men, Justices of the Peace, schoolteachers, were found oh the list of persons who signed the "trade" manifesto that business haddec.reaS' ed in Invercargill under No-License, and that it had not been in the interests of the town. Going through the list of persons who signed the manifesto, the speaker said some were interested in the liquor trade previously, or now had relations in it; others were not business men at all, but employees, and others were persons whose characters were not such as to entitle them to be called representative citizens, A telegram had been sent by the local No-License party to the "Southland Times" yesterday to ask whether it was true what the manifesto contained that that journal endorsed what the one hundred citizens had done m the terms alleged. The reply came, and the speaker read it:—"Paper made no such statement, and disagrees entirely with it." (Loud applause.) Mr Bedford concluded an address lasting over two hours and a half, with a fervent appeal to his hearers to assist humanity in its onward and upward march by doing what lay in their power to wipe out the liquor bar. On resuming his seat, Mr Bedford , was accorded a yery prolonged round

of hearty applause. In answer to questions, the lecturer stated that he could not say if any business premises in Ashburton burnt down since No-License had not been rebuilt, but he quoted figures to show that property values had increased. 'lhe No-License party did not go right out for prohibition, because all the drink evils were removed in the course ol time under No-License, and that was all the party wished. (Applause.) To another question the speaker replied that the only way it was practicable for a portion of an outside district to be added Masterton was to alter the electoral boundaries. If this were done, however, the larger- portion of the electorate would lule the smaller on the liquor question, and if No-License were carried restoration would have to be carried over the whole of such new electorate by a three-fifths majority.

On the motion ot Mr C. E. Daniel!, seconded by Mr J. McGregor, who each made short appeals for the audience to "strike out the top line," a hearty vote of thanks was carried to the speaker, who was also accorded three cheers. More cheers were also given for the NoLicense cause.