NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

Evening Star, Issue 20119, 8 March 1929, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

NOVEL EDUCATIVE PROGRAMME " TRADE " TO SUPPLY THE CASH [Per Unite) Press Association.] WELLINGTON, March 7. The annual meeting of the New Zealand Alliance in Wellington adopted the following resolution to-day;— “ That the Alliance, having taken into consideration the whole situation, makes the following statement: (I) That the world-wide situation gives increasing cause for encouragement. (2) In regard to the position in the United States an impartial survey _ot the evidence indicates that, despite inevitable initial difficulties, the general effects of the prohibitionary law arc good. The election of Mr Hoover as President is a conspicuous sign of the determination of this nation of 120,000,000 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. (4) There has been no time in the history of the movement when (he case was so overwhelming for personal and national total abstinence, and victory only awaits the day when scientific facts concerning the nature of alcohol and the effects of taking the drug as a beverage will displace the traditional ideas. In that day the traffic in alcohol must go the way of everything that shackles the free development of on--lightened 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, and moral health of the community.” .Mr J. Malton Murray, the executive secretary, 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, the Education Department, and the Publicity Department there should be set up "a council or board, reinforced by economists, psychologists, and others whose co-operation might be considered necessary to attain the highest efficiency; and that this body should be responsible for the conduct on a comprehensive scale of an educative programme directed against the use of alcohol as a beverage. The funds to be expended by the board would be derived by appropriating 2i per cent, of the present revenue from alcoholic beverages nr alternatively by increasing the taxation on these beverages bv Is Gd per gallon on spirits, Id per ga'llon on beer, and Is Gd per gallon on wines. Even then, said Mr Murray, the Excise and Customs on these liquors would be unfavourably low as compared with Britain. Political proposals would have no place in the programme, which would be directed solely to informing all sections of society of the scientific facts about alcohol and the economic reactions of the liquor traffic. Mr Murray quoted precedents in other countries for the proposal. 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 ptoposals to the Standing Committee, with power to act.