MR. MATTHEW BURNETT'S MISSION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2341, 8 July 1886, Page 2

MR. MATTHEW BURNETT'S MISSION.

The' mooting last night in connection with the Gospel Temperance crusade, was presided over by Mr R. S. Hawkins ot Bowlands. On his taking the chair, he was loudly cheered, He thanked them for the kind reception accorded him. He had taken in the past but little part in this great movement, He had been informed that it was not necessary the Chairman should be a pledged abstainer. He had never signed a formal pledge, but in heart and soul, by reason and conviction, he was a sober man (cheers). He.held they were engaged in a conflict, the issue of which was assured (hear! hear I), It was a cause of vital interest to the people of this colony; Of the ways and means to bring about the desired rosult, it was. not his place to dictate—certainly not in the presence of that great general of the movement, Mr Burnett (cheers). He held the opinion, and it was steadily becoming recognised, that not only to be drunk was a disgrace, that to make a man drunk was the action of a scoundrel, but to offer inducements to persons to drink was to act, not as a friend, but as a foe. He spoke strongly against the system now happily going out of vogue, that of shouting (hear! hear!). "Let there be no mistake", said he, " my remarks do not apply, to the working classes only, but to the people of high position," He hoped theday was not far distant , when no Minister of the Crown would so insult the common - sense of the people as to appoint anyono to a responsible position, who was addicted to intemperance, That wealth would cease to guild immorality, and a high position to cloak vice. (Cheers) That state of things would have to be brought about by the peoplo themselves, and it was for them to bestir themselves. Total abstiuence was but one force—one item. Religion had a' larger share in bringing about,® truo reform, and in' Mr Burnett they had not only a temperance advocate, bufa true servant of the living God. He urged upon them never to separate roligion;'from their work, and pointed out'to them that, it was on the common platform of Temperance that all sects united-for the general good.. Some people hoped that religion was at its last gasp, and said Christianity was at its last breath. They were not to believe that, (Cheers) He did not want to keep the meeting waiting Their , victory he had said was assured, and he had based that statement on facts set forth in figures by Sir W, Harcourt, who, after stating that the rovenuo was £1,208,699 short, declared that it was due to a deoline in tiie consumption of alcohol, which he attributed to the great and voluntary chango in the habits of the people it Great. Britain. (Cheers,) The growing sobriety of the people was a fact both in.England and New Zealand, and the result was increased savings and home comforts. The working man now, did not leave his home in darkness and dis.comfort to seek warmth of company and literature at Jie public house. No, he brought those comforts home and enjoyed them with his family. (Cheers) And those things were mainly the result of the movement, of which the present meet-, ing was a part, carried on only by such men as Mr Burnett, (Cheers,) and he hoped and believed it would result in producing a sober, honest, god-loving, and -.'god-fearing population. (Cheers.) He wished them every success in their work, and called upon the lecturer to address them.

Mr Burnett asked tha'meeting to give an expression of opinion upon the chairman h speech and this , the audience did by acclamation which was thrice repeated. He passiid in review what had been said by tho Chairman and referred to the statistics produced. Such a chairman, ho said, was real and practical, and of wonderful assistance to a lecturer. (Cheers). He, after some general remarks, passed on to the subject of his lecture and gave a very graphic and interesting lifelike description of two characters who had reformed through his instrumentality. At the close of the meeting, which was a very 1 large one, though not numerically so strong as on the proceeding night, some thirty persons signed the pledge and sported the color. •