THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3978, 2 December 1891, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Published, by the courtesy of the Editor of Wairarapa Dai'y wider the auspices of the New Zealand Alliance ifor the prohibition of the liquor traffic, Maa> terton Auxili.vi/.

When ratepayers demand the entire exUnction of all places for the sale of liquors their prayer should be granted, —Charles Buxton, Brewer,

[Uommunioationa tor this column muak be addressed to "The Prohibitionist" care of Editor of Waibarapa Daiia.] <

Sir William Harcourt, speaking at ABhton-under-Tyne on the 18th September, said There are a few great questions, whioh I can only mention in a single BentenOh or two,' which certainly are ripe and demand a solution. First of all there is the liquor question—(cheers)—a question winch Affects the welfare of every , family within the three kingdoms. Does anybody suppose that that can rest where it is ? (Cheers ) In this matter the liberal party haVe already won a gr«at initial victory. When we defeated the compensation clauses proposed by Mr Gosolien and Mr Bitohie half the battle was won. (Cheers.) We diverted thia monstrous publio-houee endowment to the purposes of techmoal education—an objeot whioh I am sure Lancashire ought to prefer to the publio- house. (Cheers.) We defeated the attempt to give legislative recognition to the . vested right in a license—a right which, if it had onoe been aoknow* ledged, could only have been redeemed by hundreds ot millions; and the courts of law did the rest. They made short work of the law of the Government And of the law officers of-, the Qoyernment, That has cleared the field. The right and the duty of the magistrates is now plainly understood and universally knewn. What they want is more courage to give effect to the laws which they administer. (Cheers.) I have watched carefully, theso last few weeks, the decisions of the licensing' magistrates/ I have re« marked everywhere on the consciousness of the evil and a recognition of. the duty they had to perform j but - also a faltering and a disposition to postpone and to pro* crastinate that whioh they felt ought• to be done. And can anyone doubt that what is required is the authority of publio opinion at the baok of the law exercised by a looal veto of the people who are interested in the matter ? (Cheers.) ! ■

+ -r Mr T. W. Russell, the well-known Liberal Unionist; speaking at Moy on , September 24, said: It is on account of this question, which, I .believe, lives at the root of social reform, that I bear the heaviest grudge Mr Gladstone. (Hear, hear). In 1888 ' he bad a Parliament largely pledged to Temperance and social reform. " With the weapon then plaoed in his hands he could have done almost anything. He threw it away; he broke it into pieces, and all for Irish 1> Home Rule. I suppose the chance will come round some day again— , but I- make these observations to ' : show my old Temperance friends, some of whom think that I have turned lukewarm in the cause, how changed the condition of things has become. I still believe drink to be the great enemy against which'this mation has to fight. (Applause). I still believe that, its ravages-exceed;!"? those of war, pestilence, and famine oombined. I bitterly lament that it has been possible to do so little dur- . ing the present Parliament to stay those ravages, and that the exigencies of the political situation often >J#ke men like myself appear to ba incon-. . sistent. All I can say is that what one man can do 1 shall try. to do to * lessen, if not to destroy, this curse. ; + + Tp Wendel Phillips states the oase against the Boston dram Bhops in the following way :—ln Boston the Jewel in our Grown is our Common School. These schools aim at training up in sobriety, integrity and Christianity 28,000 young minds and hearts', tfce cost is 450,000 dollars. (Sideby side are 8000 grog sh'ojis. these grqg shops' by the of the phjej "of . police (an official of the city vvhioh ignores temperance) taking the average of twenty shows this fact: That the same number of adult men, twenty-two or three thousand, are sent to the poor -house and tq the jail ' from the direct inilueuco of interqporanco in the same amount of tiiqe that the schools are educating tvyeqtythree thousand boys and girls; sq "S----that with one hand the city brings up to God's light, and with the other dashes down into darkness, tho same number of souls. Well now, tlje jjjiristianity qf the 0% says l Oqn'| fliat be stopped 2 Are wo'objfgec} tq sjt and fold oar hands in the presqncQ of such an evil ? Has a man a right, under any idea of Government, to open, became he owua a lot, a pitfall for his fellow- men? The right of a man to drink champagne under his own roof is undisputed; but prohibition does not touch that right. Prohibition only savs : " When you throw open that door, and invite tho passer-by to. drink, and when two hundred years of experience have proved that by so doing you 'double my taxes and malte } ' it dangerous for my chili Ito tr^acl

those streets, I have a right to say whether you shall open that door or not. I don't care whether you Bell him poison or food; I don't care whether you sell him alcohol or roast beef—>t does not matter; all I kDow ,18 that, if jifu undertake to sell biui something that doubles my taxes, and makes my passage through the street more dangerous, you double this crime, and 1 have the right to interfere." There i? where I get my right; and if any grogseller can stand here and show in the face of an intelligent people that he has the right, under any idea of Democratic Government, to filch from my pocket and to make my passage through the streets un~ Bafe in order that he may coin other men's sins iito his gold, let him try it.