THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4017, 20 January 1892, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

ftMithd hi the courtesy of tlie Editor of IFairarapaDiiiiyuiiderfliemispm of the New Zealand Alliance for the prohibiten of the liquor traffic, Masterton Auxilim/. .

When ratepayers demand the entire tindion oj all places for the stile of , liqwrslheirpmjer should be granted, —Charles Buxton, Brewer.

[Communications to'r (Ms column must be addressed to " Tho Prohibitionist" care of Editor of W airakapa Dail*,]

The annual meetings of tho United Kingdom Allwnce wore held in October in • circumstances at. once significant and suspicious. After long waiting and travail, one of the great political parties has adopted the policy of the Alliance; and the third and crowning confirmation of that adoption was pronounced by the speech of Mr John Morley from the chair. What Sir W. Harcourt had said, and Sir George Trevelyan repeated, Mr Morley bag re-affirmed at greater length, and with more careful particularity. His speech, which occupied fifty minutes in the delivery, and which appoared next morning in the columns of the newspaper press all the country oyer, bore in its construction marks of careful premeditation. Nothing appeared as if excogitatod impromptu; nothing appeared to have been altered or omitted from- the original design. The elocution was clear, deliberate, and emphatic, All could hear, and all who heard could understand. The speaker made it plain beyond all possibility of dcubt, that ha was ia complete accoid wMi the Alliance on the three cardinal points of its legislative policy—lst, that the liquor traffic in districts should not exist if tho people living" therein did not ; desire its 2nd, that the people should express their opinion by ft vote directly on the issue before them j 3rd, that no conditions, of compensation should accompany and embarrass the public decision, As Mr Morley holds, and as the Alliance has always insisted, tho Local Option shall be complete—direct, unfettored.

By general consent;, tho annual meetings of the United Kingdom Alliance held in Manchester, wero second to none aver held before, in interest and power. All who were present seem to hare been struck with this conviction, and may be held to have gone back to . their respective homes full of tho delight born of words and deeds of good cheer, aud of anticipations of success soon to be achieved. Even the public press, raoro largely than ever before, acknowledges that the Alliance haß attained a point in-its history entitling mow respective attention and to higher consideration than had been before awarded to it. The Manchester Guardian, for example, whilst recognising that "the annual meetings of the United Kingdom Ahianoe have never before be »ii lacking in interest," afrnjed that " last night's meeting will probably he juarkpd ivitli a red letter in the annals of the movement. The presence of Mr J. Morley in the chair is a fact which may almost be regarded as prophetic, Mr liorley is a politician, and he said it was in this character that he appeared on the platform last night. He is something more than a politician. He is a man of ardent sogial sympathies, While responsive to the claims and the rigljtij of the peopls, he is anxious to improve their condition, to make it healthier, brighter and happier, flo sees how barren all reforms must be which merely mend or alter tho machinery of. the Constitution, and how mupk tljio worth pf every cliange depends upon its efjfept on the Welfare of the community, The oljeel of tha United Kingdom Alliance is to further a great socjal reform, to remove temptations to jiwplmety, to change for tjie better somu of tlje traditional customs and habits pf the people, and it is because tljis is the nature of its aims that it has won the support of Mr iforloy, 1 '

» There is no mistake," says Mr Montagu Williams in his chat with a coiitriliiiior to tho Strand Magazine, " about what is tbo cause of nearly all the crime in the Eaat-ond of London. The oiirso of all is drink, and I must say that the wives are often 1 worao than the husbands," Speaking from his observation and expsrionce as a magistrate at the Worship street Police Court, Mr Williams tells us [London Daily News] that "tbo woman often makes the first start towards breaking; up the home whilst t|ip jpband is away at work. She fdvsajraS' heir cl)ildfon enf} domestic (be bat of# ginsjiop with' a" friend,' generally andthe'r wronjan. Therje" elfe passes ipostof'the day, and wfien tljp greater of the husband's earnings, jyhjoii in most cises ape given bountifully, ai'o spept, she goes and goes again to the pajpn? shop, until at last, in a state of despair, the husband, at the sacrifice of all he has in the world, thinks the public* bouse (lQt niclia jjad place after all, and'nine men out often go after the wife. The next step (adds Mr Williams) in this fatal, downfall is the lodging-house, and when once an boneljt 'worfjng i)jan gets there, then aomes the beginning of the end,"