Sir Charles Russell on Intemperance.

Evening Star, Issue 8382, 6 December 1890, Page 2

Sir Charles Russell on Intemperance.

At a recent meeting at South Kac'ftney Tabernacle, to welcome Mr George Blaiklock on his return from a lecturing tour round the world, Sir C. Russell, Q.C., M.P., presided, and remarked that he had been in the chair when, about a year and a half ago, they bade their friend, NhBlaiklock, God speed .on his journey. Heunderstood that Mr Blaiklock had spoken many times ta Australia, New Zealand, anci the United States, and was glad to learn that he had been received as his talent, earnest ness, and devotion to the causo deserved. There was no question to which men of earnest minds, and with the power of influencing their fellow-men, could more usefully address themselves than to the question of intemperance. Although society could do many things to help itself, and although legislation could do many things to help those who needed help, there yet remained the great truth that no small proportion of the misery which existed in the world had been created, or at least increased, by t\xabsence of the spirit and practice of' temperance. He did not feel hinself. qualified to be a preacher on this, or any other subject, but he wished to utter thie. earnest word. He did not think that tli« social side of the question ought to be lost sight of, and that advocates of temperance should content themselves merely with denouncing intemperance. He thought they should bear in mind the many temriia.tions which must exist for the class Ttkieh suffered most from the absence of tho. virtue of temperance. When he though*, of the little enjoyment that entered into the lives ot the great majority of his fellow-inen, of the sordid surroundings of home, of the few counter attractions offered to those of the public-house, he confessed he had often felt himself without the heart to speak ketones of opprobrium even of the practice which they must all deplore. Therefore,, when he spoke of the social side of the question, he would remind those who were earnest in this matter that something might be done otherwise than by direct denunciation or by direct teaching, gomethins^

might be done to wean away from Intemperance those who were addloted to it. Happily this waa not a political question, for on all political sides there were strong and earnest advocates of temperance, and he did not doubt that upon both sides of politics there were men anxious to endeavor by improving the homes of the people, by offering opportunities of healthy relaxation and recreation, by offering counter attractions, to do all that properly and legitimately could be done to run, so to speak, in competition with the meretricious, the garish, the false attractions of the publichouse. __________ The handicap for the Waimea Plains Cup is as follows:—Mon Loup 9.8, Leinster 9.4, Milord 9.4, Dunville 9.2, Anonyma 7.7, Victor 7.7, Seaward 7.7. _ The average income in the United Kingdom is L4OO for a bishop and LBO for a priest. In India it is L 260 per bishop, and L 36 per priest. In Canada and Australia it is higher than in England. According to Mulhall's 'Dictionary of Statistics,' in Great Britain the average earnings of colliers in 1884 were 49da day, being exactly the same as in 1870, but the output of coal per miner rose in the sa.Tie interval from 230 to 318 tons per annum ; that is, the wages paid for extracting a ton of coal were 65d in 1870 and 46d in 1884—a saving of 30 per cent. The value of the output in 1880 was L 47,000,000, the number of miners 485,000, the tons raised per miner 303, and the value at the pit's mouth 7s. Lieutenant Marks, the Russian cyclist, reached Paris on October 5, having accomplished the distance from St. Petersburg, 2,000 miles, in thirty days. The Czar is the largest of all living landed proprietors, owning an estate which is nearly equal in orea to the whole of France.