TEMPERANCE CAUSE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 55, 8 March 1929, Page 15

TEMPERANCE CAUSE

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

EDUCATIVE AVOEK

Tile annual meeting of the New Zealand Alliance was ,held yesterday. The alliance dealt with Maori work ami passed appreciative resolutions touching the work of the l?cvs. A. J. Seaiuev and E. T. Haddon amongst the Maoris. The report of the Youth Work Conferonce held on Tuesday was submitted to the meeting, and the following resolutions were'adopted:— "That, where practicable, a house-to-house visitation bo carried out 'with a viuiy to recruiting members for the Bund of Hope, present members being encouraged to accompany adults in order to personally invite other young people to join." "That this conference recommends area councils to interest themselves in temperance teaching in the day schools, by arranging for an annual essay competition or examination for the school children of their localities with suitable awards as an incentive." "That where such action is not already taken, areas be. urged to make a feature of an annual young people's demonstration for the purpose of arousing and sustaining interest in the young people's work." The reports on education and roll work prepared by Mr. G. A. Tuck were presented and adopted, and a resolution expressing hearty thanks to _ Mr. Tuck for his work was carried unanimously. The Rev. S. S. Emmit and Pastor Scragg gave inspirational addresses before the morning and afternoon sessions respectively. EDUCATIONAL WORK. Mr. J. Malton Murray, executive secretary of tho alliance, was granted leave to submit to the meeting certain proposals not on the official programme. The pith of the proposals was that under the auspices of the Health Department, Education Department, and Publicity Department there should be set up a council or board, reinforced by economists, psychologists, and others whoso co-opcratiqn might bo considered necessary to^ attain the highest efficiency, and that this body should be responsible for the conduct of a comprehensive largo scale educative programme directed against the use of alcohol as a beverage.- The funds to be expended by the board would be derived by appropriating 2% per cent, of the present revenue from alcoholic beverages, or (alternately by increasing the taxation on ; these beverages by Is Gd per gallon on spirits, Id pur gallon on beer, and Is Cd per gallon on wines. Even then, said Mr. Murray, the excise and Customs on these liquors in New Zealand would be unfavourably low as compared with Great Britain. Prohibition, State control, or any other political proposal would have no place in the programme, which would be directed solely to informing all sections of society, young and old, of the scientific facts, about alcohol and the economic reactions of the liquor traffic on the life of the community. In view o.E the increasing recognition of Governments of their responsibility /in regard to anti-alcohol education in the schools and to the general public, the speaker said he was satis-. fied that such'steps as those he advocated were inevitable if we were to advance beyond the alcohol drinking stage. He asked the alliance to make a demand upon the Government for the establishment of a board on the lines indicated. The meeting referred the proposals to ,the standing committee with power to act. CAUSE FOR ENCOURAGEMENT. The meeting adopted tho following reKqlution/concerning the position of. prohibition:— ■ ■ .: • ' "That the New Zealand Alliance at its annual meeting having taken into consideration the whole situation; makes the following statements:— '<,'.' „.- , , , "1. That the world-wide situation gives increasing cause for. encouragement. ; "'2. In regard to the position iv the United States of America, an impartial survey, of the evidence indicates that despite inevitable initial difficulties the general, effects of the prohibitory law are Rood. The election of Mr.. Hoover as , President is a conspicuous .sign of the :de-,. termination :bf this nation of. 120 million people to hold fast the benefits already experienced, to consolidate the position, and to make no concession to the forces of anarchy and disintegration. "3. The chief feature of the 1928 campaign in New Zealand was the command exercised by the liquor monopoly for propaganda purposes of huge financial resources with which we could not possibly compete. Many unfair and prejudiced statements thus passed unanswered during the campaign and seriously affected the poll. "i. There has been no time in the history of the movement when'the case was so overwhelming for personal and national total abstinence, and victory only awaits the day when the scientific facts concerning the nature of alcohol and the effects of taking this drug as a beverage displace traditional ideas. In that day, the traffic in alcohol must go the way of everything that shackles the free development of .enlightened peoples. The coming of that day will be hastened by all those who will make an unbiased investigation into the scientific facts relating to the physiological, economic, eugenic.l and moral health of the community."