SPECIAL REPORT

White Ribbon, Volume 20, Issue 3, 1 April 1948, Page 9

SPECIAL REPORT

SPECIAL MEETING, PALMERSTON NORTH

At the March meeting of the Palmerston North Union, the speaker was Mr. Ormond Wilson, M.P. (Labour).

The protests in connection with the Masterton Trust, sent to Unions by the Dominion Executive, had in turn been forwarded to him. He wrote that he was not in accord with any of them, hut as he had been appointed a member of the Trust Committee and had heard both sides of the question, he would, if we wished, meet us and discuss with us the points raised. Members voted in favour, so on March 3 he arrived, accompanied by Mrs. Wilson,

He explained, at the outset, that he was not a prohibitionist, and regularly enjoyed his glass of beer, and ffien commenced the address by quoting from Hooker, “They are not laws which public opinion hath not made so.” 44 The present licensing laws,” he went on, 44 could not he enforced because there were not enough police.” He was all for temperate habits, and thought the overcrowding of bars between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. made for excessive drinking. The time was short, and the men huddled together and drank far ton much. If they were allowed to go home from work and come back after tea they could take their drinks in a leisurely fashion, and would not, he thought, overstep the mark.

He considered there slmuld he more publicity about drinking. The hole-in-the-corner method appealed to adventurous youth. They saw men going into some secret place and wanted to see what was going on, and

to taste what was apparently so much relished by their elders. Open drinking in a public place, recognised as being quite respectable, would not have the same appeal, he thought. "There* would be less drinking,” he continued, "if the profit motive were eliminated.” He favoured Trust, rather than Government Control. With the Trust in charge and the profit motive eliminated, after-hours drinking would be done away with. He thought there should he no bars. If they had doors and windows through which the public could see, he ventured to say they would soon be empty.

This concluded his address, and he then invited questions and comments. The first question was, “Was it the people who for extended hours ?’’ He replied. “No, the returned servicemen.”

A member then observed that extended hours did not make for less drinking. Six o’clock closing had been a l>oon to the country, and the streets were much safer and free from drunks since its inception. Mso it was for the good of tlie home (and therefore of the country), that husbands should be at borne with their wives and children in the evening. He said that he did not think those husbands who “filled up” between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. were of much use in the evening. Another member then said that in the Text-book for Training College Students, alcohol had been termed a poison. How them could he support the drinking of it? He replied that sugar was a poison, in fact everything was a poison when taken in excess, and went on to sav that, as drink had come to sav, and youth was bound to meet it, whv not let them do so in public rather than in secret? Tell youth not to drink, and that is just what thev will w*ant to do.

A member then spoke up and said that the Principal of the Girls’ High School, in an address to the W.C.T.U., had said that she had always felt that Prohibition was not the right solution to the drink evil, for her father, a Church of England clergyman, believed in teaching his children the right and w'rong, and then leaving them to decide for themselves. Hence she had not been quite in accord with the compulsion element in Prohibition. During the war, however, she had stayed in an hotel in Wellington, and what she saw there so disgusted her that she realised that the only thing was to take drink away, and now she was a rabid Prohibitionist, preaching Prohibition in and out of season.

Though much in the minority, Mr. Wilson was quite polite and goodhumoured throughout, and the meeting was much enjoyed by everyone. The President remarked, “We hope you will come again. Mr. Wilson. T believe that if you came a few more times wc should soon have you on our side.” He replied, laughingly, that he would send his v ife next time, and she would tell us something about the up-bringing of children.