W.C.T.U. CONVENTION

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 69, 23 March 1931, Page 13

W.C.T.U. CONVENTION

SOCIAL REFORMS URGED

- Tli© following resolutions were passed at the. convention of .the" Women's Christian:Temperanee Union, n.o_w-be.ing held in Nelson:— ' /,. "'■' .;; (1) That tho: union presses upon the Government Jthe urgent n-eeessity- for the appointment, of two... women censors of picture films; (2) that;the Dominion Convention should seek some avenue whereby the picture programmes shown too, children may be improved; (3) that again warnings be issued to all branches to discountenancdall raffles and guessing competitions;. (4) that storekeepers shall not be: allowed to sell Intoxicating liquors (wine and cider), , Mrs. Taylor, in her presidential address, covered, a wide /angeof subjects. She said that every nation was facing the problem oii unemployment. At the present time in Great Britain tnere were over 1,500,000 men and women unemployed. At the same time the annual national expenditure on alcholie liquors was close upon £.300,----000,000. "Even a small reduction of part of the expenditure • on ' intoxicants," said the Eight Hon. William Graham (President of the Board of Trade), "would make all the difference in the world in the provision of necessary resources." Mrs. Taylor pointed out that the returns published by the Board of Trade and Ministry of Agriculture indicated that for every £1,000,000 output only 542 workers w«re required in malting and brewing, while fewer were required in distilling. The same output in shipbuilding, textiles, hosiery, boots, railway iron, steel, cutlery, • coal, furniture, housebuilding, bread, fruit, milk, meat, vegetables would employ 5770 persons —more than ten times as many as in malting and brewing. It had been carefully estimated that on this basis more than 1,600,000 persons could be absorbed if the present drink expenditure were diverted. She submitted that the unemployment question was humanly urgent enough to warrant a departure from precedent and worth while trying.