Temperance Lecture

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3038, 21 February 1899, Page 5

Temperance Lecture

A fairly large, audience assembled, t jn the Presbyterian. » all last night to, hear the Rev. F. W.-Isitt's lecture *'-. The Successes and Failures or no license in the Clutha." The Rev. G. Hounsell presided, and opened the proceedings with' k short prayer. He said he would not take up any time in introducing Brq. Isi)bt, who was well-known to most of them.

Mr I«itt- beg >n by quoting condemnations of the liquoV traffic from statesmen such as Bismarck, Beaconsfield, Gladstone, and other prominent men and authors, to chow that the Prohibition movement was not the fad of "unthinking "men. Se then claimed that the example set by Clutha would, if followe.l, be productive of great benefit to the colony. The liquor traffic was inimical to the best interests of the people. The liquor drunk in this— which was at least the most sober British colony— coßt directly and indirectly £3,000,000 per annum : the actual o..bt being £2,100,000, and the resultaut costs making up the balance. The amount of liquor consumed in one year, if placed in 400-gallon tanks, would make a tower 660 ft high and 40ft square, all of which was poured down the throats of the oldmen in New Zealand, as (according to the Premier and the newspaper editors) young New Zealanders do not driuk. The weekly expenditure of £40,000 would purchase a steamer like the wrecked Mapourika. It would pay the colony to purchase and wreck a steamer weekly rather than that the Bame money should be spent on strong drink. To make the comparison complete : from 10 to 20 lives should be lost in each steamer.'as it was calculated that fully 1000 Ryes were sacrificed to Alcohol annually. Mr Isltt dealt with other figures and then dwelt upon the number of drunkards in the colony which he stated to be at least 20,000, and he said that if they were placed in a line shoulder to shoulder the rank would be over eight miles long. The misery of the wives and families of Ihe men and their degradation, was a strong plea to kind* hearted people fco vote out the traffic which gave a man a license to make other men drunk. There wbb no question that a licensee was strictly within the law, so long as he only made a man drunk and did not further supply him after he was so. Clutha under the no-license had practically banished drunkenness. There were only two convictions for drunkenness last year and one the year before. During three and a-half years of license there were 146 convictions. For the following three and ahalf years there were only six : four of whom came drunk from across the border. There was not one single instanceof what the law classed as crime in the whole of Cldtha in 1898, while the number of police offences had been reduced from twenty to fourteen. No other electorate in the colony could show such a good record, which was remarkable, as at the present time some of the Supreme Court Judges were referring to the excessive number of criminal caees coming before them. Men could atill get liquor in the Clntha if the sly grog sellers held them in such low esteem as to believe that they would lie if necessary and save the seller from the consequences of his act. The aly grog seller, however, dare'nt make a man drunk and no cheques were knocked down. Balclutha township was as prosperous as at any time in its history, and throughout the whole district faithful and sagacious men and women Were bent on maintaining the condition they had secured. Contracting Clutha with other parts of the colony, the lecturer Bpoke of the quality of manhood that went down before Drink, and gave many pathetic instances from his own experience, in which men fitted for the best positions and their families were involved through drunkenness. The lecture Was listened to with close attention, and Mr Isitt was frequently a pplauded. The customary vote of thank ß was accorded at the oloae.