I.O.G.T.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5276, 9 January 1879, Page 2

1.0. G.T.

,A public) meeting in connection with the ; Grand Lodge of New Zealand Nbrth m i-' held yin the Protestant Hall last evening The iiall ; was pretty well filledj-and at -8 o'clock rMr^M. R;. Miller tpbkiihe chair, moßt;{df th^-'membera^'lltK^Exeoiitive being on bhe platform. * ' _ TheJDhairman said he was glad to fiefc . such al'good meeting. It presaged well for the concord of the evening. .-He hoped the meeting would hear to-night what means the Good Templars hoped to use to further and foster . their institutions. They could only hope to succeed by fostering brotherly intercourse. He would not detain them, as there were several of the ablest speakers in the colony to speak that' night; ' He would call oil Mr Hemus, of Auckland. Mr Hemus wanted to show to the meeting how fraternal Good Templars are. They seemed to have an affinity to everything that, is good. One thing they wanted was to give them a law to prevent people being poisoned. He knew a man who went into a house,. and within six hours was laying on the grouiid. poisoned* Yet he was told nothing could be done td the man who occasioned it by the law'^ f because he was a licensed victualler. Now, what was wanted was a law to {enable the Good Templars to deal with j that evil, and that was one of the things these great political reformers were wanted to take up.; Mr Hemus then de a scribed the affinity, between the desires' of all kinds of ikeoical men and the Good Templars. All aimed to cure the bodily evils. And lastly Good Templars aimed at the same end as the people who called themselves Christian Reformers. Alcoholic drink kept men from the sound of the Gospel. People said Good .Templars wanted to . put their' Order before Jfche Gospel, and to extent th'exdid, V by making the man sober, so as lffjße } in .; a condition to listen- to the.GospiaLtbachf ~A\ mgß. [Applause.!. ■ . „w J :- M *•$.-. The Hon. W. Fox next aqdress§d.ithe : ; . meeting. He said— l really do. not know ■<{ that we want many more arguments than '-■ we have had, if the arguments we have ; heard will not induce you to aid in the tern- 7 ' perance work against the '; evilfc -arising V^ from the use of Btrong drink. ;-"l;jto*9fo..j/:*T 1 prißed that you have not mpte^pebpleheiieA;;: to-night j if there was a. fire,"^or thett# cholera, or any .epide'inic, fcbw people^ would crowd to do all they could ;jko stbp/%; : them ; . and yet, when .- .a ■ few strangers:^ come amongst you to appeal this great subject of alcohol; you, dp^j&t .f;; take sufficient interest in it to 'orp.wd^ißV J$ hall, right out to the street, small gathering of a few. huridredipeople*^ You will find that the proportion of public; ji?? houses is greater than butchVrß^BhopSjlfif shoemakers 9 shops, or any^tr^esmeniife People do not take these" things-^into||| consideration. They can 8ee r ;the; : de^irift|rf^ bility of bringing.; '.mmig^Wnts'^h^re^l'; but they cannot seethed w^do^of_ke,ep-|t|^ ing them out of drunkards' \"gßsv§B*'Wfien^] they are here. Why. [every, .jdnnk^to^S kills at least four persons eyevj, yearr p|j do not mean to say that only.poorj totter-^|j ing, drunken wretches totter: but of thefl-; . hotels and fall down dead./ ;-Butotifereg| are their families, starved; ill-treated^ andjT| killed in various ways-- through this evil.^| And only a few half-mad fanatics UkeM| ourselves seem to take any great- notice <atW these matters. If a, poor Chinaman came]|| here to open a aJtopVto^ieli- stuifffthat^l 1 would send 20 men.,,MeUng;out. t of,hiß^ place every day, he would "be Kunied^ut^|of the place. Then strong drihk., was i;M blamed for being a great source 'ofjjfte M evil. Strong drink would do no one any;f| harm if it was kep'fc locked up in >a- cellar H| under safe guardianship/ and never let;s out. The best remedy for this is in the law.|| You have the power already in your handa^ but machinery is wanted to. : use it. Even a child, cannot.' be' borne info' 'the || Christian Church without drink being .5! brought forth. Our organisation is forS| the purpose of binding men together with % the object of coping/with.this great evil^' Will not you come forward and help us ;*j& we are a small band in New Zealand>',andiy want you to join us, to help us. Many of || us give days and days of toil to this ob-Hl ject, of how best to advance our organisa-JH tion, giving hours of work by lamplight^ to help ourselves on. Yo* may hayej>l heard of dancing and entertainments dia-f^ creditable to Goody Templars, but that is, no portion of bur procedure. We do our H best to discountenance such things, and | please God if I can, while! am in- the f| position of Grand Chief Templar for^Newll Zealand I will give my most earnest efforts to put a stop to all tliese things. ; '| Mr Jenkins, of Auckland, gave a very|| laughable recitation. . . *| Mr Speight, of the Thames, would like || to appeal to' the nVeeting on a dhTerent || score to the. previous speakers. He said ;i| that everyone here, if they were not boni'-^ here, came to this colony for one and only ; one reason, they came here to better | ' themselves, and having cast off their|con- i^ nection with the' Old Country as residents, '% let them, in the name of all that:i3 reasonable, in the name of the future we hope|| for, cast off the vices that trammelled || them in the old. He^watf glad to heat ':s Brother Fox allude to a few of the things-% that bring discredit on the Order all byer^ the world, because it was the reiteratipnf^ of the sentiments' the Grand Lodge havei^ been moulding into law the last few dayVrf; and which they mean to enforce with all their power during the coming twelve^! months. He gave many instances of 1| reasonß for leaving the Good Templars, ;m showing that those who violated their "■ obligation were but a small part of those 1$ members who left the Order. He"was;, ; ; proud to see that the people were at'last educated up to the idea that to drink f was not respectable, and would % what would be our present ' position \ this day if all our, . political and ? social reformers placed, themselves in V the position of a great many objectors to Good Templarism, cavilling at this side ; issue and that side issue, and getting up on stilts, pointing out small defects, without making the slightest effort to' assist in putting down the before-mentioned abuses or defects. ( Mr Phillips, of the Thames, addressed the meeting at some length. Mr Fox said he had received a note from some person in the room, asking him to explain why a member of the Working Men's Club could not be a Good Templar. He (Mr Fox) would reply that the Good Templar Order was organised on the basis of total abstinence, and by the pledge taken every Good Templar was bound to discourage the use of alcohol. In the club alcoholic liquors were sold, and though a Good Templar might not drink himself, he became* a partner in the sale of drink. The idea was totally irreconcilable ; it was with the right hand holding a candle to God and with the left holding a candle to the devil. A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedings.