N.Z. ALLIANCE WELCOME

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 24, 28 July 1927, Page 8

N.Z. ALLIANCE WELCOME

Prior to leaving for Auckland by the Limited express the Bey. Jamrs Banwas entertained at tea by the "Wellington branch of the New Zealand Alliance. The Bey. W. J. Comrie, chairman of the Stand»ig Committee, presided, and.amongst those present were the Minister of Health (the Hon. J. A. Young), Messrs. P. Fraser, M.P., It. M'Keen, M.P., and many members of the New Zealand Alliance. Apologies were received from the Hon. B. A. Wright (Minister of Education), the Hon. Sir James Allen, M.L.C., the Hon. A. S. Malcolm, M.L.C., Archdeacon A. M. Johnson, Archdeacon A. L. Hansel!, Archdeacon lunes-Jones, the Eev. Fielden Taylor, the Eev. Br. Gibb, and Commissioner Hay, Salvation Army.

The chairman welcomed the visitor as a distinguished Scotsman, and reminded him that the people of New Zealand came principally from Britain, and were now blended to form .a Dominion under the British flag. In his connection with education and the social well-be-ing of the people, Mr. Barr had proved himself a man worthy of 'esteem. i LIFELONG OBJECTIV2. j Mr. Barr said the -pursuit of the-Tern- ! perance cause had been a life-long ob-! jective of his. He mentioned t.lvafc out of the 100 congregations mr the. city of Glasgow, of the United Free Pres-, byterian Church, 184 of those now' used unfermeJited wine at tho Lord's Supper, as did the General Assembly of tins church. He outlined tho progress of: the Temperance cause in Glasgow, making passing rcforejic.fi to the part lie • had ta_ken in the movement, not only in that city, but also throughout Scotland. In the Temperance (Scotiand) Act they were free from the condition of compensation. '' THE STRAIGHT ISSUE. "

He believed in the straight issue, aud I was opposed to the issue of nationalisa- | tion being included. In reply to a question that had been put to him as to how he could reconcile his attitude in that respect with a plank in the platform of the Labour Party, he had replied: "I believe in the socialisation of public utilities, but I do not believe I in the socialisation of public iniquities."' (Applause.) For eight years in succession the Scottish division of the council of the Independent Labour Party had passod resolutions on this question. In 1923, aud i-effirmed since, they passed a resolution declaring to the drink traffic as an insidious factor in social degradation, which called for total suppression." They also declared themselves "against the municipalisation of the traffic, believing the traffic to bo a menace to the human race." An effort had been made to substitute "nationalisation" for "total suppression," but the pro- ; posal was negatives by 130 votes to 14. Of the 26 Labour members from Scotland, 20 were total abstainers, and he thought there were 56 total abstainors in the Labour Party in the House of Commons. After alluding to the Saltcr incident in the House of Commons and to the changed social customs so far as drink 'was concerned, the speaker said there was great work to be done in educating the young. The advance made in Prohibition in Glasgow was in part attributable to the fact that for many years Temperanco instruction had been given in tho public schools. The victory for Prohibition was not easy, but by determination in New Zealand, as elsewhere, Prohibition woulcl be ■accomplished. ' Ho instanced as examples the confident predictions of Wendell Phillips and Lloyd Garrison, and the ultimate, .triumph of t-ho anti-slav-ery movement, and concluded by repeating tho Temperance ode of John G Whittier.