PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 250, 18 April 1916, Page 8

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

Dear Comrades. — At our last Annual Convention, the War of Nations was not many weeks old, and we were hopeful that it might be soon over and peace restored. l*ut the shadow of the war cloud has enveloped us and our work all through the year, and is still deepening. 1 he fact that we have gathered for our thirty-first Conference with a lull agenda shows that in spite ot the devastating struggle, the loss of life, and overwhelming sorrow it has brought to so many homes, we are determined to go on with our programme, and ceaselessly keep our iugh standard ot total Abstinence for both individual and State before the people. The world’s news of our Unions is that everywhere, except perhaps in the United States, the war lias interfered with oui usual work, but the exhortation of our founder Miss Willard—to “enter every open door” has not been forgotten, for the reports of work accomplished and work still going on makes good reading. The White Ribboncrs in England have handed over to the authorities three motor kitchens; inside is everv needful appliance for cooking, and foi keeping food and dishes hot. The details include four primus stoves, a soup boiler, tea and coffee urns, and all the necessary utensils. These tars cost £ 2OOO. Scotland has raised the -amt amount, and purchased three motor ambulances for use in France. New South Wales has also presented an ambulance for the Front, which cost £670. Besides this, our work includes the furnishing of empty houses for the use of soldiers. The establishing of counter-attractions to the saloons, the forming of Red Cross Societies to make provision for wounded soldiers; Sewing Associations for the equipment of same; organising relief work among the wounded and dependents of soldiers—this means providing soup kitchens and buffets near camps, meeting train loads of soldiers with hot soup, coffee and tea, visiting, nursing, and giving relief of all kinds to the poor; the distribution of pocket Testaments and suitable literature to the soldiers; and lastly, the making of almost every conceivable effort to get soldiers and others to sign the pledge, to get the sale of liquors curtailed, and Temperance principles established wherever possible. When the European war was declared, an American pressman remarked to Senator R. P. Hobson : “That now the Temperance people would have to get out of the limelight.” But what has really happened is that the cause of Prohibition has been advanced beyond the dreams of its most ardent supporters. It was not long before all the nations involved in the great war realised that “booze” must be “hit. and hit hard,” to make military operations successful. And in enforcing sobriety in their armies and

among the civil population, the nations at war have come to realise that there are manv other advantages to be gained from National Prohibition besides apd bevond military success, such as industrial efficiency, which at present is essential to military efficiency, and after the war is ended will he needed to rehabilitate the nations financially and economically. Throughout the whole British Empire there are men and women of all classes and creeds who are not abstainers, and have never advocated Temperance, yet would have been glad and proud if in this time of severe (risis their nation had set the example, instead of allowing Russia to lead the way in National Prohibition on the largest scale the world has yet seen. When King George proclaimed himself a total abstainer for the period of the war, and Lord Kitchener and others followed the Royal lead, the hopes ot temperance reformers ro»e high, and though every effort was made to get .1 million Londoners to sign the pledge, the results have been disappointing. But the events of last winter provided an object-lesson which we hope will never be forgotten. It was found that strong drink seriously interfered with the manufacture of munitions of war, with coal mining, with ship building and repairing, and with the operations of many other trades needful for the proper equipment of our Army and Navy, and caused the declaration by Mr Lloyd George that “England has three “great enemies—Germany, Austria, and Drink,” but the greatest of these is Drink. Since then the hours for the sale of drink have been restricted from noon to 2.30 o'clock p.m. and 6 to () o’clock p.m., and the Prime Minister, speaking in the House of Commons, said that where the liquor restrictions had been introduced there had been an appreciable diminution in drunkenness, and .1 considerable reduction in the amount of liquor consumed. besides which more effective work had been performed. This shortening of the hours of the Trade, coupled with the order for the nontreating of soldiers, has thrust the subject of Prohibition before the people of Great Britain as it could not have been done in normal times, and when the war closes the Temperance forces will find themselves on a vantage ground for pressing their cause in the future. The result of Prohibition in Russia has been beyond the imagination of the most hopeful and extravagant prophets. The “World’s Outlook” reports that the police have little or nothing to do, babies have all the milk they need, women go about as if they were in Paradise, Savings Banks ran now be said to be the substitutes for vodka shops, and at the end of the first seven months for Prohibition, according to the Comptroller of the Treasury, the total savings in the Russian banks had increased 147 per cent. Illness, insanity, accidents, injuries, and alcoholic sicknesses decreased in an astounding measure,

due to the fact that money hitherto used tor drink nas been divt ried to me purchase of me decencies and necessities ot clean living. In spite of me lati tmn ex.liny vodka meant y\ mg up an annual revenue of hve Hundred million dollars, Russia sent it out at the point of the bayonet. The gain has not only been in savings bank uioosns, but in the increased efficiency of her people, and to-day Russia, without vodka and with the war, is better olf than Russia with vodka and without the war. And so we are not surprised to find that as recently as January 4th of this year it was telegraphed through the world's press that “ 1 here are indications that the restrictions upon the sale of vodka will continue after the war. The Government are erecting a factory to utilise the enormous stocks of alcohol in the manufacture of synthetic rubber.” To-day Trance is rated among the greatest of the alcoholic consuming peoples. 1 here are half a millon saloons in that country ; tnis means an average of one to every eighty inhabitants. Pans alone has thirty thousand saloons. Gustave Hcrve, editor of the leading revolutionary Socialist organ, and one of the leaders in the light against alcohol, said in a recent editorial: “It is hardly worth while to save France in the trenches, if it be only that alcohol may make it a desert of a cemetery in the future.” Vet since the opening of the European war last year, the military authorities began to take drastic measures for the suppression of alcohol in the Army. Surgeons and military physicians in the hospitals and army infirmaries, found that alcoholic patients were the worst cases with whi* li they had to deal, their wounds would not heal, and their system, weakened by liquor, refused to bear the fatigue of the battlefield. This led to the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of absinthe throughout France. It will give you some idea what the consumption was to hear that stopping of the traffic meant the dropping bv the Government ot a revenue of over sixtv millions. General J off re has tone further, and has forbidden the sale of all spirituous liquors in the entire war zone. From this it will be seen that the Temperance movement in France is only in its infancy, and vet when one remembers that up to the outbreak of the war the liquor interests had pra. ticaliy unlimited control, that no reform measures, even of the mildest type, could be passed through the Parliament, the programme of the Temperance forces, which will probably be carried through before the end of the war, makes a long step in advance. Again quoting from the “World’s Outlook,” we are told that “the past fifteen years, ana particularly the past five years, have witnessed a great awakening in Germany to the evils of intemperance. Hut she has doubled, nay, trebled, her efforts against it since Inc great war. At the opering

of a uew Naval Academy on November aist, iq'o. the Kaiser. 111 a remarkable speecn, said: “The next war. the next naval encounter, will require of you sound nerves; these are undermined bv alcohol endangered from vouth up by its use. You will see horrible devastation, and all kinds of pictures. 1 hen the word will be strong nerves and < uol heads. Ihe nation which drinks the least alcohol will be the winner, and that, gentlemen, should be you.’' The Temperance party in Germany distributed this address among 104 regiments in the Army. Since then other documents of similar importance have been circulated, stating that there is no justification for calling beer “liquid bread.” and that a glass of beer costing 25 pfennig has no more nourishment than a piece ol cheese costing one pfennig. Five years ago the Krupps forbade th*' sale of beer in their steel works, and opened milk booths, but now the cau*e of temperance in the citv of the Krupps ha* been further advanced by an order of the Seventeenth Army Corps at Munster forbidding the sale of whisky at bars on Sunday: . Mondays, and legal holidays, and permitting it on week days only from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., and since Ist August, IQI4, it is reported that the Federal Council of Germany has granted full power to each of the States within the Confederation to handle their liquor traffic as it pleases. Said the Kaiser: “If my people stand for temperance principles, they will be raised morally.” J nough these same people at the present time are our cruel foes, we White Ribboners with all our hearts hope that their Army and Navy will adopt these temperance principles, and be so morally raised as to know how to treat women and little children in time of war.

It is encouraging to know that the fight against liciuor in Canada is forging ahead. 1 he Province of Ontario has over Moo municpialities; over 400 arc under Local Prohibition. On Ist November, 1915. a new law came into force closing all remaining bars and saloons at 8 o’clock. This further restriction will, it is expected, speed:!' - lead to Total Prohibition. 1 he military laws are very strict. No soldiers are allowed to be billeted where drink is sold, none was allowed upon a recent trek of ninety miles from Niagara to Toronto. None is allowed in military mess, armoury or canteen. 'The shops arc forbidden to sell it to men in khaki, that is, in bottles. 1 know a vote was to have been taken on the drink question in Hritish Columbia in January last, but so far 1 failei to get the results. In Manitoba a similar measure will go to the people this month. New Brunswick has banished it from nine of its twelve counties. Nova Scotia has had no bars, except in Halifax City, for a number of years. Quebec Province has 77 per cent, of its municipalities under Prohibition, and Prince Edward Island is “dry.” Let

us hope that when the next election returns come in, John Barleycorn will go out for all time It is good to remember that onehalf of the entire population of America, numbering one Hundred and ten millions of people, are now living under a No-License law. The nation is now preparing to wage one of the most progiessive civil battles for freedom from the slavery of the licensed saloons; this campaign is no other than to overthrow the liquor element in the United States. The 1 emperance party contemplate making a nation-wide effort this year, and will seek to get elected to both rile House of Representatives and to the United States Senate members who will at once pass a national law that will straightway free their land of all liquor troubles. The Scandinavians, once the hardest drinkers in the world, are turning toward Prohibition, and doing it by majority vote. Remarkable progress has been made m Norway and Sweden, and in Denmark popular votes taken from icr>7 to 1 13 have resulted in majorities for fhc abolition of the traffic.

t urning from the woild progress to our own land, i must confess the condition of things is disappointing. I ime was when we rejoiced to think we led the world in the fight against alcohol. Unhappily for New Zealand, we fear that day is now bia a memory, and th.it since last election we have been merely marking time, though our own organisation has not been resting on its oars. While Parliament was in session we sent a petition to the House praying that in view of the example set by the King, alcoholic liquors should be banished from Bellamy’s during the course of the war. We also petitioned the House, asking that hotel bars should be closed at 6 p.m. daily. But though the Petitions Committee reported favourably upon it, no action was taken ; the National Government failed to protect their people from a traffic which is inherently vicious and evil. Our Drink Bill for IQI4, published in June last, amounts to £4,246,357, which works out at an average of about £3 L3S nd per head of the population. In this connection, I cannot do better than quote from the Alliance statement: “The Minister of Defence, speaking at Wellington on May 31st, said that our last estimate of war expenditure was £300,000 a month; this equals £3,600.000 a year ; our expenditure upon intoxicating drink would pay the whole of this expenditure on the war, and provide a pension of £2 per week for 6200 soldiers in addition.” I think it was Mr A. S. Adams who said “If the people could be persuaded to pass a self-denying ordinance and abstain during the war, thev could devote to patriotic purposes the sum of £4,246,000 saved, and would not only not feel the expense, but would be richer at the end of the war.” The money thus saved, paid into a common fund, would provide

for all our expenditure m the war. and leave j£600.000 to be devoted to the re- , lief of suffering in Belgium, Poland, Serbia, and other distressed countries. Although this could be done, 1 am •afraid there is not likely to be an\ decrease, tor in 1014 the number ot persons arrested for drunkenness amounted to 13, <Bg, much the largest in the history of the Dominion. In ic> 15, during the first six months of the year, 0430 persons were arrested for drunkenness. And the “Otago Daily Times" on 15th February of this year reported that in one of the larger towns of Otago no fewer than 64 hogsheads of beer were consumed in a period of four weeks. As a result of this extensive use of liquor, the police returns for the town show that there are already 20 convictions for drunkenness this vear, as against 70 for the whole of I^ls. I yield to no one in my admiration of the British soldier. Compare him with those of other nations, and you at once see how splendidly he holds his own. and if we want our fill of pride in our own men, we have only to turn up press records and read of their undaunted courage *»t Gallipoli, and how thev exceeded the expectation of the whole British Empire in their willingness to !av down their lives for theit King a* d country. And yet there is a danger of this splendid manhood, in many cases, being spoiled through indulgence in liquor. In the light of these facts, should not something be done to protect the soldiers from the people who persist in treating them? If “treating soldiers” can be prohibited in England. ( anada, and other places, surely it can be prohibited in New Zealand. Medical testimonies prove that men whose bodies are sodden with alcohol have small chances ot recovery from the ghastly wounds caused by the explosions of shrapnel. The nations acknowledge that it is erficienc v that is wanted in the war. The alcoholic soldier will always be lacking in that qualify, therefore for the general good of our defenders, “treating" should be made a punishable offenie. The Cambling Mania. It is more than disappointing to record that our protests against gambling during- the past year have been so futile. In spite of the protests that were sent from all parts of the Dominion against the Gaming Act Amendment Bill, the Government passed the measure which gives increased facilities for gambling. The same paper which reported the introduction of the measure in the House of Representatives by the Hon. Mr Russell, relates the following:—“The courageous few who stood out prominently in their opposition to the wholesale raffling in connection with the recent Otago Queen Carnival, maintaining that the spirit of gambling would be inculcated and fostered in the young;, will find vindication of their contentions in the following: ‘A school boy of nine years of age re-

turned from one of the Dunedin schools with his books supplemented by a little cheap volume of songs. Interrogated by his father as to how he had come by it, the young hopeful reported in matter-of-fact tones that he’d won it in a raffle at school. The boy who owned the book originally, and valued it lightly, had disposed ot it by lottery, issuing 20 tickets at one win per ticket.’" And the same paper, in same issue, on 28rh September, in a leading article congratulated the New Zealand Educational Institute upon the stand they made in protest ing against use being made of our public schools in pushing the sale of lo'tery tickets. Disapproving of some of the methods adopted in raisin/ funds fo r our wounded soldiers ana their dependents, and telling of the gambling spirit that permeated the carnivals, the writer said: “If we are to have a strong, self-reliant, industrious, aiid self-respecting people, it will not be by encouraging gambling- and ‘get rich quick’ methods, but by showing our young people that the only sure road to success and real happiness is along the path of efficiency, industry, patience, and honest effort'."

After such a riot of gambling among all < lasses in c onnec tion w ith the war, it is not surprising to read about the riot of gambling in connection with the races that took place during the holiday season. From 27th December, at one week’s meetings throughout the Dominion, 23 different towns, no less a sum than eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds went through the totalisator, and that at a time when economy is the policy that should be observed by all prudent people. When Judges and Magistrates comment upon the evil influence of the totalisator. as they have frequently done, the Parliament should endeavour to curtail its power, and not give greater facilities to gamble, as they did last session. The Kinematograph. Two years ago, in my annual address, 1 advocated a closer supervision of films before they appeared in public. Since then the class of pictures shown in New Zealand has very much deteriorated, and 1 arn pleased to note that during the year the Canterbury Women’s Institute forwarded to the Mayor of Christchurch and the Minister of Education a memorandum callin<r attention to the retrogressive tendency of the picture shows, and asking for their support to arrest this. Since then the Otago Presbytery, rhe Education Board, and the Catholic Federation have discussed the matter, and all are agreed that a stricter censorship is necessary. We are told th.it managers of theatres do not select the subjects, but simply show what the Film Supply Companies send them. But surely if the managers, backed up by those who are interested in the moral welfare of our children, demand a certain standard of decency

and purity in the pictures to be shown at our theatres, ini> den and will be met by the Film Supj ly Companies.

The Melbourne “Southern Cross" last November publisher* an account of a deputation which waited on the Minister of Internal Affairs in connection with this matter They stated that some of the productions exhibited to women and children are unutterably and openly vile and filthy. Shameless impurity is thrown on the canvas, and laciviousness and refined and unrefined corruption are becoming more and more the order of the day. That being so, then we plainly want a vgilant censorship for our picture shows, and it is the duty of our organisation to help secure it. If this were done. 1 believe it would exercise a most beneficial effect upon the community.

Temperance Teaching in Schools. We are glad to know that we have in the Hon. J. A. Hanan a Minister of Education who has decided that Temperance Charts must be given a prominent place on the walls of the State schools, and that they must be regularly used, particularly in the upper classes, m connection with lessons on the economic, moral, and physical aspects of intemperance. W e have always worked for this instrvetion to be given to our children. We know that ignorance is the parem of a great deal of vice, and believe that hundreds would be saved from intoxication if they know the physiological c ffects of alcohol, and the school is certainly the place to learn this. The State does well to fortify thj voung mind against perils to which lack of knowledge so readily exposes them. The Maoris. In October last I saw in the Press a brief report from the District Health Officer, including his remarks upon the sly-grog selling that goes on among the natives in prohibited districts. He tells how at every funeral, tangi, or entertainment of any kind the majority are drunk. The appalling part of it is that women, and even children, drink as freely as the men. Teachers testify to the fact that school children arc* often intoxicated after a tangi. One small child of about five years of ag»* was seen by a teacher to be drunk and carrying a bottle of liquor. This sort of indulgence must be injurious to their health, and if allowed to continue, one wonders what the future of the natives will be. We are told that pakehas make quite a big living by sell drink at twice its value among the Maoris.

We have heard similar statements before, and find it particularly galling to know that the law is not able to secure these diabolic offenders and punish them accordingly. That the natives are exposed to these temptations make it all the mpre necessary for us to have a representative working among them. As you know, Miss Woodhead was obliged, through illness, to leave us early in the year, and so far

no one has been found to take her place. Sincerely i hope that this Convention will be able to complete some scheme that will not only see new branches of our Union organised, but will keep us in touch with those already formed, and so by education, and insisting on legislation, we may do something to preserve a race that, unfortunately, are all too quickly dying out. Women's New Occupations. It is difficult to say what employment has not been invaded by women since the war sent Englishmen to the Front. In most cases the innovations were not made without opposition till necessity forced the objectors to give way. Naturally, the higher and better paid positions were most contested, and of these even now comparatively few, save in the medical profession, have been given to qualified women. A register has been compiled of University women capable of taking almost any position »n education or science, and a fail number of such appointments have been recently made. As we have said, medical women have received high positions both at Home and abioad. The War Office have appointed women to be heads of war hospitals, and the services of women in medicine and surgery are at a premium. In local government, women have received many positions as inspectors, members of boards, and Commissioners, etc. In clerical work, women have made a great advance on the whole, but v omen clerks, both now and before the war, are greatly underpaid. Women police (as distinct trom voluntary women patrols) have not been much encouraged, but in Glasgow and in some other towns some appointments have been made. in the 'ower classes of work, women are largely employed; in many casts, happily, at fair wages; in a few even on the same scale as men. This is the case with certain of the women who have been called into munition work, where they have won great praise. In many cities women are tram-drivers, post men, chauffeurs, van-drivers, etc., ar d give great satisfaction. Lady gardeners have come greatly to the front. ‘Women chemists are much in demand. Women are now begged to go iiuo the harvest fields and agriculture generally, and are doing it. There are women grooms, riding teachers, etc. I !«■ domain of ind’istry has been more or less invaded by women during the war, but grea’er than the positions they have received under authority, municipal or Government, is the fame they have won by their tremendous success in voluntary organisation, where they were not hampered by the continual jealousy and economic hostility of men. Last year has discovered to the whole world the administrative capability of womeD, and it is splendid ! In Conclusion. As was to be expected, the great F.uropean v ar has not only cast a

gloom around us, but interrupted our ordinary routine of business, but we must not allow our temperance and social work to stop. White Ribboners the world over are doing more war work than we arc, and still they are keeping up their efforts against the dunk traffic. Certified fans prove that Prohibition is the only means by which this same traffic can be destroyed, and to do this a gnat revival of passionate enthusiasm an ! intense self-sacrifice is much to be desired, and the wav to get this is on our knees. Together we must pray for strength to fight seek guidance in reform work, ask for wisdom to make plans and carry them out, knock for open doors, and pray for boldness to enter them. We must practice, preach and promote total abstinence. We must bend ail our energy and use every means in our power to educate the young in temperance principles, and aim at making them workers for the cause. We must agitate, educate, legislate, and keep everlastingly at it, and remember that—“We fight, but ’:is He who nerves our an 3, He turns the arrows that else might harm, And the work that we count so hard to do, He makes it easy, for He* works too; And the days that seem long to live are His, And close to our need His helping is.”