THE CHILDREN

Evening Star, Issue 12626, 4 October 1905, Page 6

THE CHILDREN

Mr isrrrs plea for them. Mr Isifct's meeting in the Garrison Hall last night was attended by a large audience. In the absence of Dr De Loutour tbe Rev. C. H. Laws presided. ' Tbe Child' was the title which Mr Isifct gave his addrces. Perhaps of all he would give this one would, he said, be the least logical. As it is not possible to give mote than a brief condensation of Mr Isitt's remarks in the space available, it is only fair to point out that this prefatory statement should not be misunderstood. It would not be if all that Mr Isitt said were repeated. We take it, then, that the lecturer had no intention of apologising for the iHogicalness of his address, but rather wished to | indicate that he was making an appeal less directly to the logical facilities of his hearers than that made oy others of hix lectures. To put it otherwise: he made tbe appealing weakness of the little child the vehicle for tbe conveyance of his message. He did not, as he said at. the beginning, deal to any great extent with the bare No-license question, but rather ret himself to picture ihe horrors of tbe excessive-drink evil as it affects the unfortunate children born under its influence. He had been accused, he said, of being too optimistic about the prospect of No-license in New ZealandWell, he was optimistic. He hated pessimism. He looked upon pessimism as a kind of dry-rot that got into the soul; and the man who owned the soul was not much rd for anything afterwards—the sooner went to Heaven the better. But really he did not think they wese a bit too optimistic Ef they were not going to poll heavily and carry No-license in a number of electorates next polling day, then these must be a lot of people in New Zealand who were perverters of the truth. For wherever he went, talking to all aorta and conditions of men, he heard the same story —men who were not abstainers toJd him that they were going to strike out tbe top Tine. He was never tired of his work. When he was mdraed to be fagged oat in the Old Country he had only to go out and see the misery and suffering among the children to be stirred to a white heat. He referred to the fascination of youth (yoangtime might be more apt) from the new growths of spring, through the animal kingdom, to childhood. There was nothing more oppressive than child-eufßering. He did not think -there was anything in which the wisdom of God was more manifest than in the helpless tznsting of children. We were all 30 per oorrt. better for the trusting of the children. Tt made us strive to live up to their standard. If it were not for the children, pity and tenderness and lone would all perish and die, and this world would become a crabbed, grinding world, where creelty and selfishness would reign supreme. He'eaid "Thank God" for what we owed to the children- But their presence brought also a tremendous responsibility. We spent thousands on the edo- ! cation of the children, and then set up at every street corner traps to catch their unwary feet and rob us of the useful, indostrioos citizens that otherwise would have been fashioned in our schools. To his mind it was folly that had no excuse. If there were no other reason why we should put an end to the liquor traffic, the fact that so long as they had 1,400 nxraor bars in existence every year they were bound to work irrevocable injury to the children in this land, ought to be sufficient for us. Was there any wrong greater than a wrong done to a chad—when a child was born undercimiuintanceg that made it an absolute certainty that it would grow up a burden to itself and a menace and a past to society. That night be wanted to appeal for justice to the children. There was no man or woman in that ball prepared to vote license and perpetuate the bar for the safe oi alcoholic liquors who could say: "There are a number of focis who use ton to excess and suffer; they derarve to Buffer." The thing that he wanted to hammer on night after night warn this: that behind the great army of those who suffered in. their 1 own minds and bodies and souls throagh < their drink excess, they had to remember the larcer armv of men, women, and children who srffered throturfi the excesses of ethers. "The wives tied to drunken husbands; the inen—4he despairing men—tied to drunken wives; it is these, who suffer through the drink excesses of others, that constirinV the best reason why we should vote "No-license" and ,"no liquor bars." He .was told by a school inspector in England that there *e*e >znmt- aLQOO cfcawm

wfcp'rwent to, school without ever breakiaf their' fast. It' was common for' a dhHd saying its lessons to fail fainting. And then they ga.fte it food, for tt was weakness from'starvation. He did not say that aU this poverty was caused by drink, bat ha did say that. 60 or 70 per cent, of that child suffering was caused because the parents spent in the liquor bars what they should have spent on their children. Did the people here realise that in tins Motherland of which they were so proud they were still so heathen on this liquor question that they kept the flaring gin palaces of the slums open till 12.30 every night except Saturday, when it was twelve? For himself, be was never going to countenance a tiling that caused so much suffering to the children as the liquor did. ' There was bo more awful thing in this world than the frightful continuity of drink-occasioned child suffering. The worst of the misery fell on the children. There might be those who said that there was none of that sort of thing in this oountry. Let them ask Dr De Lautour if there was no child suffering through drink here, and be would soon open their eyes. - The most menacing feature of the drink evil in Great Britain was that while thev had reason to think there was a slight decrease of drunkenness among the man, a rapid increase of it was going on amongst the women. And doctors toW them that directly the drink bid its grip upon the mothers of the land the effect on the children was terrible. Ho quoted! instances of grim significance. A coroner in England bad said that he had 600 cases in a year of children smothered by their drunken mothers. That meant that there were from two to three thousand children smothered every year by their drunken mothers in Christian Britain. Bat it was not the children who dice but the children who lived that stirred his deepest compassion, b» most earnest pity. He believed that if be could only get the inhabitants of this City to ponder on the wrong and misery that were caused to the children by these liquor bars, they wonid not *-hmlr so much about vested interests, but on the right of every child to be well born, and they would help in tins campaign. Were the Prohibitionists fanatics when tbey asked the people to give up the gratification of a mere appetite for the sake of the little children? "This is the whole of my message to yon to-night. I want you for the sake of the children to help us in this battle against Strang drink." The men and women who, on any plea whatever, by their votes perpetuated the .Bauer bars in ihis colony knew that the price would be paiij in case after case and case after case by the wrong and Buffering of the cbfldren. "Tbey say to me 'Ton are prejudiced and bigoted against the liquor-seller*.' What nonsense. Ido not know the names of a doaan liquoMeflers in New Zealand. But I hate the trade, because I know that toe mis atiti grotmd oat of the blood and tears, the life and bodies'and souk of our sons and daughters. No one can ever pretend that these places ever bring good to our sons and daughters- We know that they are centres of menace and peril, and once more I entreat you, when in the oourf e of eight or nine weeks you stand in the ballot-box, as it were alone with God, and with the pencil in one hand and the paper in the other, think of the children, and for their sake strike out the top line. plause.) " Wben we get to the end of the chapter we shall none of us mourn over the fact that we have been too quick to seize opportunities of doing good work in God's name for man's benefit. We shall be sorry that we were not more earnest in our endeavor to bring benefit to others. Don't lose this chance, then, to help ns for the children's sake to end the liquor ill."— (Applause.) . Then tbey took up a ooneotjon, and Mr Isitt answered questions.