THE NO-LICENSE MOVEMENT.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11340, 1 August 1902, Page 2

THE NO-LICENSE MOVEMENT.

ADDRESS BY MISS BALGARNIE. There was a large attendance at tihe Woolston Oddfellows' Hall last evening, when Miss Florence Balgarnie, a visitor from England, gave an address on "The claims of the people versus tbe claims of the liqnor traffic." Mr John Richardson, Mayor of Woolston, occupied the chair, and with him on the platform were the Rev. T. V. Jones, Mr C. A. Allingham, and Mr W. T. Thomas (ex-Mayor). Miss Balgarnie speaks with much fl—macy, and has a fund of anecdote and illustration which keeps her audience amused, as well as interested. She statid that she considered hardly any apolomy was (reee~ary on her part in giving ths address, as she was going to shew the resuite of the liquor traffic in the Mother Country, and iiit up a warning fingca* ior the benefit of people here. She admitted that there were many causes which went to make up the social misery of England, but the paramount one was the traffic she was speaking cf. If New Zealand Legislation was t.> dsal with every other abuse, anl leave this u__ittended to, it would have made a great mistake. It was nt'ce?.sarv to deal with the question now, before i»s evils became greater. In proportion t) our population we had large, and sir I feared, growing evils accruing from t!. drink trade. Ihe liquor traffic venturer | however, to put forth a large number «t claims, and she thought that its action in doing so, in spite of the evils it produced, was the most atrocious thing m connection \vith it. Carlyle had put the thing in a nutshell when he described the traffic as " the mrft authentic incarnation of the infernal spirit ever devised in th? miind of man. ' l'his was thewiew of a sage and thinker, and practical men, suca\_. as Sir Robert Stout, and in England Lor— Coleridgp, had concurred in it. , AU" though in England the people hod not the power c/ the v.tfo. or " no reduction," they wsce not altogether unprogressive. Already such a degree of temperance feetin_j had bfen raised, tha. it was becoming a. hard thing to get- a new lice roe, and the policy was to abolish old licenses whenever "pov-ible. In eleven years no leas than nc& publtchouses had been closed, and it

had been enacted _at no compereataoa should be grlven to hotelkeepera. Titstatement was often made that if the liquor were eventually driven right out of * «ra_ . try, it would cause immense rain hy toting thousands cf people 01& of empiojM-BL litis was one of the meanest c—iss ptt forward. The wages of those at breweries, auapsred with the capital es_ in the business, were the smallest ft* vailing in any trade. In purchasing _-l worth of woollen goods, for inst—we, eat had the satisfaction of knowing that Ha of it had goos to the pTodocere. Bnt ii buying liquor the sum which went to lit workers was precisely sixpence. Afbß aU, the strongest argument against t_t. drink trade was the moral one, and & strange thing was that in this mat—i j there was no attempt, aa in other case-, fc strike at the root of the evil- It had bt_ suggested that things would be re_edM to scone extent if the State were given «► trol of the traffic, as if the liquor wt—not be the same then as it had always bsa The opinion was sometimes expressed 1&----this wcutd be a step towards probfb—n, but it would put prohibition five—i twenty times further back than it w_ # present. The lecturer urged people _•»_ to put aside side issues, _ki exerc—» tfc power which every man and weanan J* sesssd of "striking out■ the top line.'* At the conclusion of the address — < Rev. T. F- Jones moved, acd Mr TfcOß* seconded, a hearty vote of th_3_3 tow I lecturer, which was carried u__i_ow Votes of thanks were also passed to» chairman and the Woolston Band, -dw had played oatside the hall just befog* W commencement of the meeting. Mr 13k**: also briefly reviewed the progress rfWtemperance nartv in Woolston. of rs»jyears, and stated that this year, if W could not get "no license" carried is * district, they were detennmed at le_*.*; carry reduction.