N.Z. ALLIANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4024, 29 January 1892, Page 2

N.Z. ALLIANCE.

Address b7 the Bat. E. Walker.

The Rev. E.Walker, of the New Zealand Alliance for the' legislative suppression of the liquor traffic, addressed a pnhlio meeting in the Temperancß Hall last evening. Th« Kev. J. Dukes occupied the chair. - Mr Walker said the prospeots of the prohibition movement were in every way encouraging, and in proof of the statement reviewed the course oi events since he last visited Mastenon and ako the recent course of the movement in the home country which was likely to greatly influence colonial legislation. The number of successful candidates at the late general" election pledged to local option; the votes polled for prohibition up and down the country at the recent licensing elections; the issue of upwards of 25 thousand copies of the prohibitionist newspaper fortnightly; the second reading secured last session for the Alliance local option bill; the prospeots of the Womens' Suffrage Bill; the revulsion of feeling caused by the means adopted to thwart the will of the peoplft as originally expressed atOamaruand Masterton; and the fact that the temperance reform hud now become everybodys' talk wero sure indications that in tins " tug of war" the temperance end of the rope was it last being rapidly Beized by the majority before whom the liquordom minority would shortly have to yield. The Averse judicial decisions had helped the cause by exposing the unsatisfaotoriness of the existing law, and intent sifyinpr the demand for such a law as the Alliance has always advocated by fthich local residents by direct vote at the ballot box, and without tli9 intervention of licensing commissioners, can decide whether or not they will havo the liquor traffic in luy of its forms in their midst. Respecting thu advance of the movement in the Home country, Mr Walker said the last report of tho Imitcd Kingdoin Alliance was most cheering. From that report Mr Walker gave a mass of evidence to that effect. The Alliance as suoh knew no party in politics, but the temperanoe cause had been adopted almost wholly by the Gladstonian Liberals and almost unanimously rejected, by the Conservatives, and recent indications were cottainly not very promising for the success of' 'the latter at the approaching general . oleolion. So far baok as May 8,1884, Sir W. Harcourt, advising a large deputation on behalf of the Liberal government, said:—" The views of the Government'have been distinctly stated as being in favour of the ratepayers having the power of determining in each locality what they desire in reference to the drink traffic I stated that last year in my speech on Sir Wilfred Lawson's local option resolution. T have nothing now to add and nothing to change, I adhere entirely, without modification, to what I then stated on behalf of the Government, We de sire that the local authority should have complete control over the drink traffic, that the locality should determine «hat houses'should be licensed—whether any, or none at all, or how many." This was a distinct avowal of the principle of local popular control. The Webb Direct Veto Bill, which recently passed its second reading, committed the Liberal party to the direct vote at the ballot box as the method of local popular control, The second reading of this measure was carried by a majority of 7. 187 voted forand 180 against. The number of 187 was made up of 158 Gladstonian Libeials (the party appar* ently next coming into power), 16 Liberal Unionists, 7 Conservatives, and 7 Nationalists. Only one Gladstonion Liberal (and he was a brewer who does not intend to stand for Parliament again) voted against. Itfn English Conservative-voted for, but 16d voted against. And this, notwithstanding that the Government declared they would not regard it as a party vote. It may he taken, therefore, that both the leaders and tho rank and file of the Liberal party in Parliament have accepted the direct popular veto,- Besides, the leading bodies representative of the liberjl party in the country have adopted the direct veto as a plank in their platform, The Liberal Federation, the Befor,ra Unions/ the Women's Libera' Federation, and -very many other more or less important bodies which represent sections o[ the party have, during the year, definitely declared in favour of the measure,

Oo Friday, 2nd October last, at a i great mooting of the Liberal Federai Hon held in tho Tyne Theatre, New. ; castle-on-Tyne, Mr Gladstone spoke as follows:—'• I trust that most of you who are here present may witness a thorough and effective reform of the lawb connected with the traffic ■ in alcoholic liquors, and that among the conditions of that improtemcnt you may find a fair and just acknowledgment of the rights of local populations to deal with the question wtethor thero shall or shall not be within their border* any acknowledgment of publio-hbuse traffio at' all, ' A riedit just as effective as the right that is now possessed, and is now exercised without exception, to deterniino that inip'qrtant question bv the owners of th'esoil?'."' ' *"" ' "As'iridigatjng the position in the Liberal prpgrammo of this question Sir William Harcourfc aj, a mooting held in Si, Andrew's Hall, under tbo auspices of the Scottish Liberal Association on October Bth said: " In the 6rßt raril: ?f reform for the whole of the Uoited Kingdom-I don't say the first of all for that muet depend upon jibe condjtjon of things at the time—l BQi speaking and shs|{ only of questions in the first rank is the great cause of temperance." Ho would content himself by saying they were uniformly resolved that jo a majfer which deeply concerns the health, the wealth, and the well being of. the nation, eaob locality apd community shijuldhavo the fight to decide tor itself what protection it needs and what protection it desires. That is what he understood by the local veto, It is a power which every Japa>wn.erppsßeßßeßß. From the ' right to l)i?;!ja|''(i,e'pfeqo§,eßtosay ' 1 there wil} bg iio'.public-honses pn my property,' fjfo'.eaft'Bay so whatever ' the people upon jt think;, Hewpted lo j know why waanot a town and parish j to have the right to say the same , thing in the interests of its families i and ohildren grown up 1 They are i betterjudges of what they want than 1 the landowner or the magistrate. To that cause the liberal party are deeply < pledged ami are prepared. to take the < consequences,. That there is ds- ' plorble need for'. & speedy legis- ' latiye reform is. evident from ' the' fact that the national drink ,

bill for 1890 was £139,495,470 being upwards of seven millions more limn in 1889 and upwards of seventeen millions more limn in 1880. If this is so iu spite of the total abstinence movement,tlie moderation movement, education, churches, missions, doctors, newspapers and improved sanitation, what would have been tho proportions of the gigantic drink curse in the absence of these deterrent agencies! The drink bill of New Zealand was also greater for the last financial year than for the one proceeding, Mr Walkershowed how enormously, the drink truffle had effected the material and moral well being of this Colony and hoped that nil would rally to the conflict by which tho evil would be abolished, and that liquor dealers themselves would see that it would be nobler lo Hit some occupation less calamitous to their fellow

men. The usual voto of thanks terminated the proceedings.