Lecture by Mr. A.S. Adams.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3102, 26 September 1899, Page 5

Lecture by Mr. A.S. Adams.

- — ' A large audience assembled in the Presbyterian hall on Sundiy eveuing to hear Mr A. S. Adams, the well-known prohibition lecturer, who is at present working in Bruce in the interests of prohibition. The Rev Mr Miller presided and introduced the speaker. After briefly re. ferring to the evils caused by the drink traffic, he earnestly requested the members of his congregation .to cast their vote fn favour of prohibition. Mr Adams said God was behind the prohibition movement. Of late years great advances had been made io the interests of the cause, and any person who seriouily viewed the situation could only come to the conclusion that the Drink Traffic was an untold evil in every sense and a curse to this earth. They all knew what the doings of s the Liquor Traffic were, and ,how the majority of cases of hunger, want, poverty, crime and many other evils could invariably be traced to its influence. He said that the utterances of men ia high offices who had opportunities to judge of the magnitude of the havoc which the Traffic worked, pointed very stroDgly in favor of prohibition. In the recent hearing ot a case at Auckland, in which a man was charged with the murder of his wife, Judge Connolly, in giving hii decision, said that " drink was undoubtedly the cause of the trouble, and is at present the cause of fully half the crimes that are committed in New Zealand." Mr Adams said he once knew a doctor who was overcome by " the monster drink." For many years of his life this man made a noble struggle to free himself of its clutches, but the temptation was too strong. One morning, after he had been drinking very heavily, he was found lying dead near the fire into which he had fallen, after having lived a useless life, and in the end destined to fill a drunkard's grave. To further illustrate his remarks, Mr Adams said that on one occasion a man who had been overcome by drink came to him in his office in Dune, din and asked him in the name of God to have an order issued to lock him up in an asylum where he would be removed from the temptation. Mr Adams made the necessary arrangements, and after the drunkard referred to had been about nine months at Seacliff' he was released apparently permanently cured. As time went on, however, the temptation got the better of him, and he is now a helpless, hopeless cripple, his whole life blasted by " strong drink." Mr Adams said that it was no wonder men like himself were enthusiastic over the prohibition question when they saw and heard of the evils that were resultant from the Liquor Traffic. As thefold drunkards died, to sustain the Traffic it waa necessary that the young should be trained to have recourse to strong drink. This was the point that the prohibitionists decided to grapple with— to save tiie young people of New Zealand from growing up drunkards by having the temptation removed from thejr way. He said that a petition had been issued in Dunedin by authority of the combined Christian Churches to vote no license, and had been signed by no lest than 98 clergymen throughout Otago. This showed that the churches were upholding the cause of prohibition. In conclusion he qaid he thoiight the men and women of Bruce woidd do their duty and vote "No License," and that when the numbers were up they would be able to congratulate themselves on the goodness of God in having granted Bruce a speedy deliverance from tbe Liquor Traffic. A collection was taken up to defray expenses, and Mr Miller closed the meeting by pronouncing the Benediction.