ANTI-LIQUOR FIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 88, 13 April 1923, Page 4

ANTI-LIQUOR FIGHT

TERSIST-UNTIL TRIUMPH' | RALLY AT TOWN HALL There was a large attendance at the Prohibition rally in the Town Hall last *Y6hing. Mr. W. D. Hunt presided. Dr. A. 6. O'Brien, of Christchurch, remarked that a southern paper had printed a note pointing oat tho abaurd- | ity of prohibitionists attempting to make people sobef by s6htiment and ignorant | remarks instead of pursuing true tern' peran.ee. They heard platitudes uttered i by men who never stirred a hand to; help the cause of true temperance. Then i there were the utterances of those who Said the prohibitionists were benighted, namrtv-rrtinded fanatics, but such people , did nothing to help on temperance. The only people Who had done anything in the way of helping temperance in New j Zealand had been the prohibitionists. There waa a doctor in Christ church who had said that it would be an awful pity to shut the hotels, because that would take temptation away from the people and would result in weakening their ! moral fibre. Aicohdi, remarked the speaker, was a narcotic drug. It was not- the beneficent friend to man which, had been believed by large numbers of people. Being a narcotic, alcohol dent men to sleep in Various ways. Man could hot drink pure alcohol; it would kill him. In that sense it was a poison. Alcohol was not food ; it was not drinkAlcohol was not a stimulant, fie knew it was strange to say that. The epoakdr went on to quote authorities to prove his statements. Tha more a man read cif the effects of alcohol the more he Would come to the conclusion that it was not a benefit to take it. He referred to the action of alcohol on the heart. He quoted more medical authorities showing the harmful effects of alcohol. Not one, he v said, died for want of alcohol^ but many people died beoauße of it. It had a temporary gopd action in some ailments, like pneumonia* Ordinary people had, however, no right to give alcohol to anybody unless the person giving it was a diagnostician. He spoke at some length on the use of alcohol fromithe medical point of view. The Chief action of alcohol was oh the brain i and. on the nervous system. It pro, duced first stupor, then lethargy, then a daad drunk condition or c6ma. Alcohol, he declared, deludes the mind; it deludes as a food; arid it deludes as a ..Stimulant. He quoted vital statistics showing the difference of the death Vate amongst children in Ne>V York and Moil^ treal—bile under Prohibition and the Other under State cpntrol. The figures given Were in fa.your of Prohibition, fie gave the results of experiments on certain animals, and added that no anl- j mal Would drink alcohol4—with the solitary exception of tho pig. (Laughter.) It was Baid that liquctf brought in revenue to the State. "Good God!" he exclaimed, "what is the use of bringing in revenue to the' country if you are killing your people!" The little good ; alcohol, did was in its medicinal use, and in that caSe it Should be prescribed only by a doctor. Commissioner Hoggard, of the Salvation Army, said he was proud to represent an organisation which had adopted total abstinence as a condition of membership. He spoke at Some length on the good work done by the Army in the cauee of temperance. The Army Would do all Jt could to sweep the cteadly curse of drink from our country, and it was indeed a curse to humanity Iti jjdnefal. Mr. L. >f. Isitt, M.P., iii the court* of a characteristically foi'c'ible address, claiin.ed that the recent defeat of prohibition , at the polla had hot dismayed the advocates of prohibition- He referred to the forces brought against therein the late fight, and said that in that fight the Press had been bought body and soul. The false fear with respect to the effect on tho • public revenue j caused heaps of people to vote against j prohibition who otherwise would have voted for it. It was a scandals a diegrace, to stores and hundreds of Church people in this country that on that paltry plea they voted against, it rather than consider tho moral, spiritual, and physical uplift of the people. He combatted in the strongest terms the allegation that the prohibitionists were not in favour of regulation or reform. He proceeded to show J,hat it was to the efforts of the prohibitionists that six o'clock closing and the other reforms which had beta carried but were main' ly owing. "We will persist," he saidj "until we have gained- the triumph of j prohibition, because when we have gaiiied this triumph we shall pavfe the Way for a hew Pentecost," A hearty vote of fchajikg was" accord* | ed to the speaker by acclamation.