SIR "WILFRID LAWSOM'S ADDRESS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7377, 1 February 1902, Page 4

SIR "WILFRID LAWSOM'S ADDRESS.

At the annual General Council meeting of the United Kingdom Alliance, held in Manchester, the chairman, Sir "Wilfrid Lawson, gave a stirring address, from which we give the following extracts : —

I The root doctrine of the Alliance is that drink is a disturbing element in the body politic, just as it is in the . human body. That is our belief. We believe that though there are hundreds and thousands and millions who have been and are the worse for drink, it would take a microscope to discover one who has been made the better for it, and it follows that if that be the case, if a man who takes drink is the worse for the drink, then a nation that takes drink is the worse for it. And it follows from that that a system of government for the distribution of liquor immensely injures the nation where it takes place.

As to the selling of drink with the Government sanction, there are only two parties, and the point of cleavage is distinct. The two parties consist of these — first those who believe that the way to prevent intoxication is to

provide the people with intoxi- ' cants. That is the majority at present ; but then majorities are not always right. 'Ihe other party are those who do not believe in that — and there you have the two parties. Now, that is how we stand. Well ! this first party I may call the intoxicating party— do not misunder- j stand me ; do not let the reporters go away and say that I called j them the intoxicated party. But they are the intoxicating party, by J thi h own showing. Anybody who wishes for tho sale of intoxicating liquor is promoting intoxication. , There can be no doubt about that. Now they bava had • a fair chance, have the intoxicating party. They have tried their scheme for about 400 years, and they have had a free hanL What is the result ? Why, the result is that they had a Commission the other day to find out how all was going on, and the Commission reported that the drunkenness of this country — 1 almost forget the words — was " a gigantic evil." lhat is the result of ! the operations of tho party who are oppo. Ed to us. What is Our P.osition ? — We are anti intoxicating parsons. We Bay that by simply taking away the temptation of the people we shall succeed, and wo say that our plan has nevtr yet failed of doing an immense deal of gcod wherever it has been fairy and fully and honestly tried, and wo challenge the world to contradict that. It is not]at all necessary to go wandering about the world finding out the truih of this We know what goes on in our own country, and we know that in those dHriots where the Eon- ; .ntoxicating people have had power, and sufficient power to keep out the intoxicating party with their drinking houses, that there has been a tremendous temperance reformation.

You can't get it out of the heads 01 peocle that the way to make people sober is to supply them with drink. But the strange thing is that, while reviling us for one folly and pigh-adednes?, and all the rest of it, they are a'l following us. They are all coming on in our line. They have a thousand and one schemes for dealing with the drink question — every man has his own scheme, and he is perfectly convinced that it is the right one, but the extraordinary thing is that they all of them adopt our principle to a certain extent, and that is that every scheme goes for a limitation of temptation in some way or other.