ANNUAL MEETING OF THE UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE. (Times, Oct. 14.)

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 412, 5 January 1875, Page 2

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE. (Times, Oct. 14.)

Thb members and friends of the United Kingdom JUliaftpe held «their twenty-second animal public raqetihg yesterday, in the Free Trade Hall at Manchester. It is difficult in *J»e absence of any information eh to the precise purpose for w hich they met, to judge how far they may be considered to have succeeded in attaining it. There were, at all events, a good many circumstances in their favour. The hall was very densely crowded, and, though several of the more illustrious members of the Alliance were not present, enough remained to make a very fair show upon the hustings. They were aupportwd^ '• and encouraged, too, by the sympathy of their distant friends. The Independent Order of Good Templars sent their greetings by telegraph, and so, too, did the Dutch Society for the abolition of liquor-. If we ask, however, what the Alliance has dofte during ilj« twcend-t went y~y ears of its existence, "we fear that neither its members nor its friends can give a favourable answer to our very natural inquiry The object at which it seems to aim is the suppression of the retail traffic in intoxicating drinks, and this, it is clear, goes on now more ! briskly than ever it did. We hear from every side j that the tiade in drink has of late been very largely on the increase. The general rise of wages throughout the country has given the working classes more enjoyment. The late Parliament did something to restrain the hours within which public houses might be open, but its successors have been somewhat less severe, and have allowed them, on the average, thirty minutes more all round to supply the wanta of their customers. We fear that it is only too true that the vice of drunkenness has been of late more widely prevalent than ever, and we cannot dispute the evidence which connects it as a cause with the outbursts of violence and brutality which we are compelled so frequently to report. There has certainly been no lack of vigour on the part of / th<* United Kingdom Alliance. Its friends and members have held their meetings regularly, they have had the proper number of interviews with the Home Secretary, they have delivered their message boldly, and the result of it all has been simply what we have stated. The " drink demon " has been everywhere too strong for them, and has burst through the flimsy meshes with which they have endeavoured to keep Mm down. We deplore the fact as much as the members of the Alliance can do, but we should perhaps differ from them in the causa to which we think it should be ascribed, Wo will not go so far as to say that they themselves are very largely answerable for it, but we are quite sure that, if their efforts haft been more wisely directed, they would not have now to come before us and to repeat once more the confession cf their failure. The line of argument which the members of the -AUiwic.9 I#ke, whether it be convincing or not, hasr at least the merit of being extremely simple. There is, they tell us a great deal ot crime ana poverty ,v the country; and there is a great deal ofdrunkenness, from which botherim^-^id^y^rty^take^eir rise. Up to this point we can find no fault with their reasoning, and we should gladly join with them in any reasonable endeavour to get rid at once of the cause and of the effect. They have, however, only one measure to propose for the reformation of their erring countrymen. If Parliament would only pass the Permissive Prohibitory Bill; there would be an end at once, they think, to the prolonged contest of good and evil; and a new era of virtue and sobriety would be ushered in. This is the lesson which the speakers yesterday enforced with i all the means at their disposal, some gravely and solemnly, as if they were announcing an important truth, Sir Wilfrid Lawson with less solemnity, but by no means less earnestness. But this was about the substance of what all had to tell us, and we really question whether it was worth while for them to go to Manchester for the single purpose of i proclaiming it. We do not suppose they have ! made any fresh converts, and we are quite sure that they are already far too much irv earnest to need the support which they have derived from one another's presence, and from hearing the same thing i said over and over again in very much the old language. Is- it of any use to remind them that they have had their own way in more than one State of the American Union, and that the prohibition of the public sale of intoxicating drinka has been quite ineffectual to put down drunkenness ? This is a ftct which, on their principles*, it will not be easy for them to explain, but Sir Wilfrid Lawson is, as we should have expected, not in the least discquraged either by this or by his own repeated failures in the English House of Commons. He will, he tells us, bring his Bill forward again and again, until he succeeds, at length, in passing it. We have no doubt whatever that he wUI do his best, though we are a little surprised that he should consider his late experience as encouraging, or should derive hope from his analysis of the last division. But it is . scarcely worth while to spend time in discussing so remote a possibility as the prohibition of the liquor traffic in England. Our chief reason for dealing with the question at all is, not that we are apprehensive of the undoubted evils that would follow such a compulsory show of temperrnce, but rather that we regret to ses so many well-meaning persons employing their efforts so very zealously tot the good of" their neighbours, and at the same time with so little profit either to their neighbours or to themselves.