NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1930, Page 11

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

:VKNUAt< MEETING

"Delegates from all parts of the Dominion assembled in. the Dominion Farmers' Institute to-day for the annual meeting of tho New Zealand Al-, liance. Tho Bey. W. J. CoMiiio, president of tho N.Z.Ai, was in the chair, and welcomed the delegates. Tho financial statement and balance-sheet' were presented by tho lion.-treasurer, Mr. F. Feist, and adopted. . -

, Tho annual report,, submitted by the general secretary, Miv JV Malton Murray, covered the activities of the year and expressed gratification at the success which had attended tho opposition to the granting of licenses in Ashburton, Central Otago, Southland, and Kamo Springs. The report noted the successful opposition made against tho attempt by the New Zealand winegrowers to secure alterations in the law to give increased facilities for wineselling in retail quantities.

The expenditure per head on intoxicating, liquor is noted at ££5 3s lid, including Maoris, and the consumption of absolute alcohol per head is 4.804 pints. In 1928 the number of those recorded by the police as charged with drunkenness for the first time was 4209, as against 4451 in ■ 1927. Prosecutions against hotelkeepers were 067 in 1928, an increase of 158 over 1927. In 1928 there were 306 convictions for being drunk in charge: of a motor vehiclo, as against 204 in 1927, an increase of 102. The report points out that in 1928 liquor importations showed an increase of 13.8 per cent, as against 1927, .which meant that £.798,706 was sent overseas to pay for intoxicants which did no good to the community. Tho meeting showed an excellent spirit in dealing with the problems presented, and confirmed the chairman's opening statement that, despito all disappointments, the Prohibition, forces were still in tho field, still determined to carry "on, and convinced that the community would in the end share their view that the abolition of the liquor traffic would bring great advantages of every kind to the Dominion. This evening a Youth Work session, conducted by the Youth. Movement Against Alcoholism, will bo held, commencing at 7.30. The meeting will resume its .deliberations at 9.30 a.m. tomorrow. " ■ •