NO-LICENSE QUESTION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 8940, 4 December 1905, Page 5

NO-LICENSE QUESTION.

REV. C. PORTER IN HAWERA.

On Saturday night, in the Opera House, Rev. C. Porter delivered an address in favor of No-license. Mr H. Halliwell was in the chair, and introduced the speaker. Remarking on the attendance, which was only moderate, Rev. Porter said he would have been very greatly surprised if the hall had been packed, after" all the meetings the people had attended. Mr , Porter described the Xo-Hcense movement as a. grand illustration of evolution and not revolution. Forty or 50 years ago we had settlers coming out to this country with a, painful knowledge of the effects of the drink in the Old Country, and it was to be greatly regretted that these settlers as a body did not take immediate '. steps to prevent anything coming into ; force that might lead to the same state of '. things here as they had seen "at Home. ; As a Tesult of individual convictions some I lof them became total abstainers, and used 1 I every effort to empower people to determine whether licenses should be granted or not, and as a result of public lectures, and , the distribution of literature the day came , when the people's voice ruled. He felt ' sure Hawera people would agree that he < was always temperate in his speech and i if ever he did say anything rather strong it was because he was a man of very strong convictions. (Applause.) It was J a joy to be on the side of the big batta- [ lions. The great Napoleon had 6aid that God always favored the big battalions, but \ ho (the speaker) could not say that that j was true in. all cases, but he thought it applied in this campaign. He went on to ' show how the No-license party had in- ( creased by leaps and bounds till now it was in the majority. A few years ago there was not a newspaper in the colony but was against them. The papers ridiculed their cause and described them as incurable fanatics, but he thanked God he had lived to see the clay when the leading organs of the colony no longer oppos- f ed them. Such progress had been made y that at the last election 151,000 had voted i no-license, while 148,000 had voted for £ license. He was not going about "seek- < ing whom he might devour," but seek- , ing to improve the minds of his fellowmen. ] In his work he mixed with men of all \ classes, and in all kinds of places, and in { order to facilitate his aims he adopted 4 tactics whereby he got to. the depths of ] matters of moment. He did not dress like , a parson, even discarding the conventional \ frock coat — not because he was ashamed , of it — and was consistently taken to be a , commercial traveller. When travelling , with men he mixed with them freely and - when they found he was "just an ordin- - aTy man and not a blooming parson" they ; I conversed freely with him. He- did not ' hesitate to draw them out and had dis- ] j covered that anen who would not caTe to ha.ye their names publicly mixed up with. ' those fighting for No-license were wait- ' I ing with great anxiety for the 6th of De- 1 i cember to dawn and to become a matter ' of history. And the opinion of this class of man was that 50,000 would be added ! to the list of No-license voters this time. This, the lecturer pointed out, would make ] 200,000 voters for No-license, and from this 200,000 there would b« a constant ten- ' doncy to give No-license a trial to see if it could conquer the drink evil. They were not fighting the brewer or the publican; there was nothing between him and tne individual publican, but he supposed that the sellers of strong drink w«u!d hardly believe that the fighters of' the traffic often prayed for them in their devotions. He simply mentioned this to show that it was not a fight between one personality and another. But they were prepared to fight the traffic to the bitter end, fairly and honestly. It was commonly agreed that man was the centre of civilised value and in the Bible it said that if a man had a bull that gored a man then the bull should be done to death and if the owner of tne bull knew that the bull was in the habit of goring men and did not kill the bull he himself should be killed. This showed, the speaker said, that anything which injured man should be destroyed. The question to ask was whether the granting of licenses as at present was in the social interests of the colony. He had failed to meet a man who could show him that he would be justified in answering that question in the affirmative. He failed to 6ee that the licensed liquor traffic supplied any real need. It was said that the licensed hotels provided bed and board for man and stabling and food for his horse but these, being necessities, would be prodded whether the house was licensed or not, and a member of the recent Land Commission had testified to this after staying^ at Asliburton. (Applause.) The speaker freely admitted he had no right to dictate to any man whether he should drink a glass of beer or not, but claimed he had . a right as a patriotic elector to say whether he would sanction the licensing of a great traffic. If every drop of liquor disappeared on Monday morning, he asked, would it seriously affect anyone? Two small boys, the sole ' occupants of a division of the pit, promptly answered "Yes." "Two small boys • say yes," said the lecturer. "When I they're a bit older they may say different." "Hawera As a heaven after Hokii> tika," he said after describing some of the drunken sights of his travels on the West Coast of the other island. He conr sidered that the people engaged in the • traffic were in constant danger of degra- 1 . dation, though it was generally admitted i that there was <a class of publican which j could only be described by the word "respectable" when it was described in a c word. When the Barmaids' Bill was b brought before the Victorian Legislature it was stated that a barmaid could be as 1 pure, as chaste, as lady-like, and in every . other way as respectable as any woman, f but the speaker said it would take a c gTeat deal of credulity to believe that. - An ex-publican of Hawera had met him i- in another town and told him he was very b glad he (the publican) was out of the s trade. "Just in the proportion that a man i 3 is a good customer of the hotels in that i, proportion does he sink in the social d scale," was the summing up. He then L- told a shocking case of a young girl whom »- he saw frightfully drunk in Palmerston. l- The girl had been drunk for three days, k He asked "Can I be blamed if I strike sr out "the top line on the sixth of Decemy ber?" Other terrible instances of excess l- were also related. Not only was the -c traffic degrading, but it was destructive, if A "return for the last .fc>ur years showed

that during that period 19.870 persons had been convicted for the first- time for drunkenness., which meant that we were turning out drunkards at the rate of5000 a year, and the licensed liquor traffic ought to go under. (Applause). "The licensed liquor traffic can't grt>w in this colony," he said. "We simply can't increase the licenses, and that is* one of the most hopeful signs." But who will be the drunkards of the future? For his own children's sakes he would strike out the top line. (Applause). He would put his pencil through the top line, if God spared him, not because he had any • grudge against the publican, but because of the destruction he had seen. (Applause). Another reason why he would strike oufc the top line was because we had a dying race in this colony — the Maori. And weshould do our utmost to save it and prevent the destruction of that magnificent race. None knew better than the liquor sellers that 'the Maoris were in their present position because of their devotion towhat they called "waipiro." No man would dare to say from the platform that the licensed liquor traffic was working for • the good and not for the degradation of the Maori.

The speaker next related a story of degradation told by Rudyard Kipling. "After seeing this^ sight," "says Kipling, "recanting all previous opinions, I becamea prohibitionist. Better is it that a man should go without his beer in public places and content himself with swearing, at the narrow-mindedness of the majority ; better is it to- poison the inside with very vile temperate drinks and to buy lager furitively at back doors than to bring temptation - to the lips of young folks such as the four I had seen." I understand now why the preachers, rag j against; drink. I have said there is no harm in. , it taken moderately, and yet my own demand for beer helped to send those two young girls down that dark street, God alone knows to what end. If liquor is worth drinking it is worth some trouble to come at, such trouble as a man wall undergo to compass- his desires. It is not- good tTfat we should let it be before the eyes of our children, and I have been a fool in writing to the contrary." The rev. lecturer then concluded by appealing to the audience to celebrate December 6 by striking out the top line. The Chairman said Mr Porter would b© pleased to answer questions, but as none were put Rev. Gibson moved a hearty vote of thanks to Rev. Porter for his address, which he described as manful and appealing to the highest instincts of mankind. This was carried by acclamation. A similar resolution to the Chairman concluded the meeting.