THE CASE FOR STATE CONTROL.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17610, 13 November 1922, Page 11

THE CASE FOR STATE CONTROL.

Jham heathcote.

vmlhan ' nta<l :' yU ! •* i <« kin s as his b r #» l ". of the Moder- * *** *li the other aspects of th" o U&*'.„ so mo intorrup- •*, *?*»&«»» the speaker was * attentive hearing aPp«rticulurly wl,t " vigour the statements from A" 3 " iDr H. T. J- Tiia'-ker, M.J.) !fcW a y •.], ],im on tho platform Doucall, president ot the St'krwchdf the N«* Zealand gS league- » ffroag Impress loll, * inc tho meeting,.the Mavor pleasure in mtroducMr Wvndliam Heathcote. ■fcftild «1» tell o f tho fl . imß League. Continuing, Kw t» tell th. #£ there was a very genera fi throughout New Zealand v iH tion were carried at. the it would come into That was it would come into 1wKt.1923. A great many i™»* 1 the idea that they would to prepare, but that was a win. *fore serious than 'T r would be the great loss Lj the fact that 28,000 peob« put out of employment. Ie and their dependants would , satisfactorily provided for. , big and serious question. hftitlon innuendoes, all said that Mr Heatlicote gentleman, coming a English family. The fact [eathcote river in Canterbury ] (fter one of bis forebears £aw,nffoient proof m itself of the ISfy oan Mr Heathcote really was. BSES.W and he used the word prohibition friends, f«p"- »nd anxious to atSSM ao&e* to «veryono who j j®loU*ith them, and they had JSS 'Mr Heathcote m that prohibition party had in®(jgrertisement in the newslast few days, de- ; JS^pSeathcoto as a ' bird of "\v sent a ir Heathmber last the^s&tte inst Mr b thought jentleftnan n such a w&sjiver. tofce, great ■ fdriM^r oome out their cusfee open, on were ya always dd th® reWhighesj larlcs the j j con-

I x# empliftsise the fact that the League I was not connected in any way with ! the Trade, t.hat it stood between the j two extremes. Each side, the Prohibitionists and the liquor traders, were entitled to their own ideas, but the j Moderate League believed that jt was | time the moderate men had their say. j At tliis stage, a man in clerical attire ro=o and proceeded to ask: "Is the l?« v. Napier Milne lying I Tho interrupter was not permitted I bv other members of the audience to I ii'nish his question, and Mr Doucall rej marked, ".My Prohibition friend is so I enthusiastic thai he cannot listen to : rra*Qn." j The same man endeavoured to put ■ his question again, but he was enlled j to order bv the Mavor, who sai<T: "I I take it that every citizen here to-night ' ran contain himself so that he will not | be a disgrace to whatever side he rei presents.*'whether prohibition or conj tinuance." I State Should Control. I JMi-rriiig in detail to the aims of ! till' Modernte Irenguo, Mr Doucall snirl j that the League's idea was that the | Rtato should take complete control of ! tlic? liquor trade, that it should only I take what it wanted, and pay for what ! ir wanted. It' State Control were earned, it meant that .liquor would not be I abolished but controlled. A voice: If Continuance is carried, , will you keep pushing? Mr Dougall: Yes. In the event of Prohibition not being carried, we have asked for very drastic amendments to the liquor laws, including the elimination ot tied houses and traffic in goodwills and many other matters, and Mr Massey assured us that he wotild < bring in legislation of the kind we desire. Concluding, Mr Dougall said he would liko Prohibitionists to believe that there was something in State Control. The Moderate League believed that the moderate, medium course was the one that would bring the greatest happiness to the peoplo. (Applause.) Instruction from America. The Rev. Wyndham Heathcote, who was received with applause, said: "Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, since I last had the pleasure of speaking in Christchurch, I have seen a great deal of New Zealand, atad I have been impressed by its beauty and its Bplendcur, and I think it a great mistake that this country is not advertised more than it is, both in the Old World and in America. In the States of America they do Hot know anything ! about Australia. They cannot even place it on the map, and it would appear that they know very little about the people who inhabit these islands. They seem to think that we are on a level of culture no higher than that Of the aboriginals of Australia. That is, judging by the missionaries they j?pnd out to instruct us in the way wftishould go. If it be necessary for America to send us people to instruct til, they might at ledst send men of culture who could instruct us, instead of 'the people they have sent. The missionaries are no compliment to our people. "Criminal Polly.'' "My meetings throughout New Zealand have been most enthusiasticj • especially in Ashburton. The meeting there was the most enthusiastic or all, and I may say that I fotlnd the same condition of humidity in dry places as in wet, but the sobriety of this country is perfectly remarkable, and in view of the fact that the garden of New Zealand is so beautiful, with only a few weeds which the New Zealand* eta are pulling up, it is criminal folly to suggest that we should plant here the prickly pear of' Prohibition. But it Js not going to be donei. Prohibition ia the Empire and in New Zealand is as dead as the dodo» (Laughter and a mso.) I. was going to say, as dea. as a donkey, but donkeys never die. The Qoliatlj of Prohibition which came into the field fully armed and boastfully exultant that it woiild' bind'the soul of the New Zealand people now lier prostrate on the ground. A few simple pebbles taken from the book of eternal truth have been sufficient to lay it low, and I am sure no one has done, more to bring about this result than the missionaries from America. Ah during the War, gun§ m&ae in America and interfered with by Workmen of German sympathies exploded and injured the Soldiers Who attended to them, 80 the big gun from America, Pussyfoot' Johnson, has exploded in . the trenches Of prohibition and his caiiae has been universally and dismayed. "Olottds Of "Moreover, the lady missionary from America with lier olenitis of words, iftctftly withoht meaning; has gassed the rest of the suppbrtoirs of Prohibition. Pre. hibition has died in the world.through ita own internal oorriiptjJoii. It haft beootne too tyrannical, and too oensoiiotis. It is a perfect tyranny. Ever eince I opened- my m<#»th firrt in my own ohurchi the prohibitionists have beeii rakine over my past, trying to find out Bbmefrh&g and bring it against me. They cabled-to Ottawa, to .find something. : and all they found was that I was a 'bird of passage.* ..Well,-.I Gould have told them that long before. The Sydney some years back spoke of trie as 'this brilliant rolling stone.' lama bird of passage. I would rather bo a bird of passage and see tho beauties and glories of the-world thaii be an incompetent, broody old hen, sitting on a.M of addled eggs trying to hatch them. No. Make me a bird of passage every time. I wonder they did not say I was a bird of paradise. "Tytaanical Prohibition." "The prohibition movement has become tyrannical. It has ihanged its moral character. Th© dd temperance movement, as L knew it, was guided W the better angels of our nature. What lm& corrupted .prohibition P The better angels have been eeduoed. Envious eyes have been cast upon the revenue accruing from the drink traffic, and people have said, 'Why cannot we divert this stream or wealth from the ooffers of the liquor trade into our ■coffers?' The old temperance movement was guided by lofty motives. The present prohibition movement has been corrupted and it iB not sincere. Many of the prohibitionists are out to enrich themselves, and they have become tyrannical and will brook no one standing in their way. That is what is killing them.'' (Applause.) The Moral Impulse. The Anglican Archbishop of Perth had said recently that he was amazed to discover how vindictive these Prohibitionists were. He said that anonymous letters had been sent to him consigning him to the shrieks of the damned because he was against Prohibition. The speaker had had a letter addressed to him as "the devil's own"—a letter sent by a Prohibitionist. A movement that was responsible for the expression of Such ideas was not a Christian movement. He had no hesitation in saying that the moral impulse of the anti-Pro-hibition movement was higher than that which guided the Prohibition movement. (Aptjlause.) Mr "Pussyfoot'' Jolmson had done him tlie honour of saying he was a parson off the leash. That was an unfortunate simile, because it implied that parsons supporting Prohibition were on the leash. It was tru« that he was not on the leash He was free to Say what he liked. He was free in the backyard of New Zealand to keep the Yankee burglar of Prohibition from entering. A Doubtful Compliment. Mr- "Pussyfoot" Johnson had also paid hiih a rather doubtful compliment. He had said that the speaker could beat even the Americans m the art of lymg. That he could' heat the Americans he had no possible doubt, but he would not enter the. lists against' them in the matter of lying. If be were enagainst the Americans in the Si* Furlong I/ying Suuttcap, they would

StJfeht "n d l ie l beforo in the straight. He had never at any time ih™ C, £ U l ymani P P lated any figuree, I *fe lt that ume quotal won he had used from the London lmes or elsewhere had been prov- **?% ®V i tl] atdid not put +< _ hjjM Jolmson in a position Jhat he beat the Americans at lying. The "Literary Digest 7 ' of America has been trying to take a poll of their readers,, asking them to say whether they were in favour of Prohibition, or of Prohibition amended to grant beer and wine, or of the return of the saloon. Mr "Pussyfoot" Johnson had i said m New Zealand that the result of the poll gave a majority of 500,000 in lavotir of Prohibition in some form of another. New Zealand people were I liable to think tbnt statement about, the resmt of the poll true. The result, 3s a matter of ract had been:— For Prohibition ... 366 000 votes. For beer and wine 376,000 votes tor the saloons ... 189,000 votes flie truth was, therefore, that thero had Ven a majority of 210,000 votes ngainst Prohibition. Yet Air Johnson had said the speaker could beat the Americans in. the art of lying. American Opinion. The American people were not in favour of Prohibition; neither were they in favour of the saloons. They favoured beer and wines, and at the :ecent election, with a clear-cut issue in five States, four out of the five voted a, "wet" victory hands down. Mr "Pussyfoot" Johnson had contradicted the speaker's statement that there was a great deal of drunkenness in America, os muoh if not moro than before Prohibition. Ho said that he had figures from each town to prove that drunkenness wits decreasing and he invited questions. Someone asked Mr Johnson for the figures in regard to Birmingham, but Mr Johnson said he was sorry he did not have the Birmingham figures, and instead he told a story. The faet3 about Birmingham were that in 192J the arrests were 2856 and in 1921 they were 4612; they had nearly doubled in one year under Prohibition. The Drag Evil. Mr Johnson had denied that America was the most drug-addicted country in the world. The recent report of the American Commission to enquire into the drug evil said that America was drug-addicted, most horribly drug-ad-dicted, and the matter was serious enough to cause President Harding to express grave concern. It had been proved in America that) Prohibition did not prohibit: that it made matters worse than they were before. It would be suicidal folly to introduce Prohibition in this country. Speaking as a Britisher to Britishers, he would say that Prohibition was not British, and that Britain would not look at it. No British statesman, no British man of letters, no British philosopher, had everj endorsed Prohibition, which bad emanated from American faddism. (Applause.) Prohibition Rejected. Prohibition, said the speaker, had been tried and rejected in many countries. Quebec had tried it and rejested it, so had Iceland and Russia. It seemed monstrous, therefore, to ask the people of the Dominion to subject themselves to a law that had proved a failure. Sweden had lately been invited to accept Prohibition, and although she had the example of Norway before her, She rejected to proposal. Had that country decided to accept Prohibition, there would have been raised shouts of joy from Prohibitionists all over the world, but owing to the result oi the poll the Prohibition* ists were silent over the matter. He asked the people of New Zealand to follow the example, of Sweden and reject Prohibition. One of the most surprising features of the Swedish poll was that the women of that Country had voted against the proposal. This to him was remarkable, as he had always understood, as ho doubt others had ipso, that there was a strong tendency of women- to vote for Prohibition. As a matter of fact, the majority against Prohibition was 29,000 odd votes, whereas the majority of the women against Prohibition was 59,000 odd votes. This showed that the women of Sweden Were of the opinion that their .husbands, sons, fathers, and sweethearts Were better off under, the present licensed conditions than they would be if Prohibition were carried and illicit 1 trading indulged in. He asked the .women of the Dominion to follow the /example thus given them by their sisters of Sweden. The voting of the women in favour of Prohibition was 123,000, . and against it 182,060. Dealing with the position in America to-day, Mr Heathcote said that the "New York World" had commented that recent figures showed that the country was going Wet . again unofficially, and that while less beer and wines Wert being consumed the consumption of hard drinks was increasing. Prohibition Undemocratic. The speaker proceeded, to argue that Prohibition, was undemocratic, unBritish, and was revolutionary in character and it must lead to loss of liberty all round. It was quite contrary to the principle of democracy that one half of the people should dictate to the other half as to what their habits should be. No-majority had the right to say what a man should eat and drink and what he should wear. Some people were of the opinion that majorities should always rule, but, this waa/a wrong principle. No maionty tor instance, had a .right to interfere with a man's worship of God Almighty, because every man would himself have to stand before God on the day of judgment and be alotte responsible for Hs actions. No majority for instance or Government had a right to interfere with a man's selection of his wife. That was the man's own business; and if was he who had . to live with her afterwards. In some cases, said Mr , Heathcote, amid lighter, it would serve the Government right if they had to live with her. MaJorities or Governments had no right to tell a man what hfe ought to,eat w to drink, because it wto theimon who had to digest When majorities or Governments would .undertake to thea perbaM they affecting the majority of the people. If a man went fop treatment to a <fen"st gas might be" given .to him, but Si regard to Parliament it was the people who ware often gassed. (Laughter.) ~ _ I Contrary to Christian Philosophy. , I Tt Was contrary to Christian pMI osjphy id ethics to influrt Prohibition the People. These Prohibitionists believed that alcohol in itself wto evil believed it to be cursed and j stn# This .was quite i damnable stutt. did principles and laws had been the earth, . | countless moving he 8 £ull of various forces.° W lf centrifugal force were in sole control, there would be nothing. ! th& earth from being drawn thue deatroyod, lint forr&t^S s er r S S&'J&Stes "S!VSB to various puUs result of the> rowts, were the or forces and prohibitionißtaW th other

sobriety was gaining year by J eir ' things were lett as they were to y* we would go steadily ahead as h indicated, but if it happened that those forces were not allowed to operate, would inevitably end up in chaos. The Laws of Nature. Prohibition defied the laws of In illustration of his point, Mr H < cote said that running cou a be prevented from flowing. A " f might be erected, in consequen which the water might be diverted its original course, but it woul flow. The old course as the result or the erection of the dam would go . > and such seemed to be the case regard to America. The wafer o _ j stream would still be found to > | although, perhaps, by secre- or u ground channels. It might mak ! country which was originally dry. a matter of fact this was what happening in the United States - Drink was no longer flowing m V,, channels, but it was flowing no loss. It was flowing in new te . and, saddest sight of all, was n °W ing in new channels. Manv young f and women who had not drunk now did so as the result of tlie r ing of prohibition. Why did y so? Why did Eve ent the for' 'Wcn fruit? These people had tlieir cur os ity aroused, and because liquor • forbidden they now sought for though they had not done so b Illicit Tactics. The speaker at this stage enlightened the audience as to how illicit tr g was carried out in some parts oi States. He produced an unusual y thick cigar, big enough, as he ."P l ® amidst laughter, for "Pussyfoot himself to smoke. The cigar had been to him from America and was a , ample of one of the secret channe.Which the stream of liquor flowed, dividing the cigar into two sections, JU Heathcote produced from its inteno _ little bottle of a size convenient for tne storage of spirits. "If you are or literary mind, this might be interesting," he said as he produced a booK, the title of which he announced amidst more laughter as "Memories of tne Past." Inside the covers of such boohs, as Mr Heathcote demonstrated, eouia be found spirits in glass it was possible to get liquor m America, he went on, in innumerable manners like those he had just dealt with, in fact, one had only to ask a policeman where to get a drink and one WO T* soon be told. Was it worth while, he asked, giving up the present legal Jra in New Zealand to take up such methods as were to-day in vogue m America r This was the case' for New Zealand to consider. . Mental Instability. One time we were told that threequarters of all crime was attributable to drink. The speaker used to believe the statement himself, but not now. Experiments recently carried out 'n America showed beyond doubt that drinlr was not the cause of crime, as had been alleged. In tho first year of prohibition in the States crime increased by leaps and bounds. The experiments demonstrated that drink and crime were symptomatic of mental instability. Drunkenness, however, was not the only way in which mental instability could show itself. It might, for instance, be expressed in religious mania. _ He was satisfied that many prohibitionists were affected that way. They came to his meetings and laughed, being determined not to listen to his arguments. At this stage a man at the baok of the theatre made an interjection, to which Mr Heathcote retorted: Someone at the .back is affected that wav. Til© consumption of liquor oou-d no more be stopped, tho speaker declared, than water could be kept from flowing. Mr Heathcote then quoted opinions to show that Prohibition America was unsuccessful, and that there was place in America where bootlegging was not carried on, despite any statements to the contrary. .There was, he said, one murder.a day.,in San Francisco, o?i weU as otiier crimes", due in most instances to drunkenness. Prohibition, he averred, was a false move. Moderate League's Alms. The Moderate League in the Dominion aimed at educating the child, as to the uses and of alcohol, and to educate the public on similar lines. In Britain, public, opinion wre awakened to the mistake of drunkenness Large classes of people to-day would never dream of getting drunk as in the old days. They believed that to get into such a oondition was disgraceful and dishonourable. His own opinion was that the drink question had been Bolved, as far as was possible, in Quebec, where State control had Succeeded in reducing drunkenness by 76 per cent., and had almost eradicated the bootlegging industry. This system, which emanated in a portion of the British Empire, was successful. Therefore, was it not better for the people of New Zealand to follow this example than that of the United States, which had proved' a failure? The speaker was expressing himself as a Britisher whodid not want to see Britain hurt. That country had never been Prohibitionist, and neVer. would be. It was not Prohibitionist at the time of Cressy, or of the days of Queen Elizabeth. It was not Prohibitionist at the time of Trafalfnr and Waterloo, and it was not Proibitionist at the time of the Great War, when it had shed its blood ih torrents while America was shedding notes. ;. : On the motion of Mr Dougall, the speaker waa accorded a vote or thanks for his address. Mr Dougall said that Mr Heathcote had performed a Herculean task. On Saturday he had been at Nelson, and he had only got to Christchurch yesterday morning In returning thanks. Mr Heathcote said'that he would not again be addressing the people 9f Christchurch. He was naturally anxious as to "the result of' the poll, but he felt that the people of New Zealand would never adopt a principle that had emanated 1 from outside the Empire sir! proved unsuccessful. (Applause.) A man in clerical garb protested agaidst the meeting being clceed without questions being allowed. Dr. Thacker (the chairman) advised bira to put his questions to candidates for Parliamentary honours. The meeting closed with a vfcte of thanks to the chair. (Extended Report published by Arrangement.)