TEMPERANCE MEETING IN HAMILTON.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 435, 16 May 1899, Page 4

TEMPERANCE MEETING IN HAMILTON.

A temperance meeting u'as held in the Volunteer Hall Hamilton on Saturday evening last. There were about 40 or 50 present. The subject for the evening was " The Liberal Government: What it has done. What it ought to do," and on thisi head addresses were given by the Rev. Dr. Hosking and Messrs Castleton and White.

Dr. Hosking in his opening remarks said they had met for the purpose of advancing temperance and Liberalism, and it was his intention if he could get the peoplo to attend similar entertainments every Saturday night until the general election and invito speakers from various parts of the Waikato. He was in communication with a gentleman who, he hoped, would speak upon the Gothenburg system. He also intended to try and induce Mr T E. Taylor to come up. (Applause). Miss Kirk, a well-known speaker, would lecture on temperance, and the Rev. L. Isitt also had Hamilton on his list. They must not be surprised if they iuvited persons to speak who were very great Radicals, as he was quite certain if any great change was to be made it would be brought about by the Liberata and not by the Conservatives. Conservatism, he contended, meant government by class for class, while Liberalism meant government for the misses. The three great principles in New Zealand politics were land, labour and liquor, and he said the people of New Zealand had cause to be deeply grateful for a number of the measures that had been placed on the Statute-book. The member for Waikato, he said, did not make himself known. It was the duty of an M H.R, to visit the people, hear their grievances and do his best to remedy them, and it was time the Waikato electors chose a real live man. He went on to detail the many Act? passed by the present Government which had benefited the masses, and dwelt at some length on the subject of old age pensions. He could not understand, he said, why the member for Waikato voted against that Bill while pretending to represent the old as well as the young in his elecMr'w. C. Castleton, who followed, said though he was not prepared to jump from temperance to prohibition, he claimed to be in sympathy with the latter party, and to prove his statement said that at the last election he had been chiefly instrumental in inducing the Rev. E. Walker to coutest the Waikato Beat in the interests of the prohibitionists, as he was anxious to the prohibitionist vote taken. If the bare majority should rule in other things it should also decide the temperance question. He referred at some length upon the benefits conferred on the people by the secrecy of the ballot, the abolition of the Truck system, Lund and Income lax, Lease in Perpetuity »nd Lind for Settlement Act. The Municipal Franchise Reform and Old Age Pensions Acts were splendid measures. The 'country, he said, had prospered under the regime of the Soddon Government, ar.d the finality in this legislation had not been reached If the people wished reforms to continue, they should support the present administration. Mr E. White next addressed the meeting. He Baid the previous speakers had " taken the wind out of his sails," having treated on the same subjects he intended doing. He referred to the immense advantages which had accrued from the small tenure—or, to use a Toryism, " bursting-up "--policy of the present Government, and said France supplied a striking example as to the wisdom of such a system, in being able so readily to pay off the indemnity levied upon her in connection with the FrancoGerman war after the country had been devastated and ruined by a foreign foe. It had been said that the old age pensions would have a pauperising effect upon the recipients, but he maintained that it had no more pauperising tendency than the free education of the young, as all had to be taxed for the purpose, and he further contended that the old age pensioners could not be so readily classed as " paupers" as the s pensioners on the Civil list, many of whom were aB well able to " do a good day's work "as he was—but who, nevertheless, were receiving the pay of the State and giving nothing in return.