PROHIBITION MEETING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10705, 15 July 1895, Page 6

PROHIBITION MEETING .

The Opera House was crowded yesterday afternoon when a Prohibition meeting was held. The chair was occupied by the Rev J. Hooking, who opened the meeting with prayer, Mr T. E. Taylor then proceeded to deliver an address on the aims and objects of the Prohibition Party. Upon rising to speak he was met with cheers interspersed with hooting and groans. He was throughout subjected to frequent interruption, having to resume his seat several times while the Chairman appealed to those present to give the speaker a fair hearing. One person mounted the stage and wished to contradict somestatemant made by Mr T. E. Taylor, but was not allowed to speak, and was ultimately escorted from the platform. As he continued interrupting, the police were seat for, but on their arrival he became quiet, and another man was removed by the constables. In the course of his address Mr Taylor said that the meeting was being disturbed by the same element which had interfered with the gathering on the previous Friday. He complained that the remarks said to have been made by him as to the people who voted for Mr W. W. Collins at the general election had been misrepresented. What ho had said was that when he went to the Opera House polling booth on election day he had seen a large number of disreputable men and women there, and he noticed that the publicans and brewery clerks were most active in their attentions to them, and supplied them with the printed tickets, upon which the names of Messrs W. P. Reeves, W. W. Collins and W. Hoban appeared. These were the candidates chosen by the Liquor Party, and as such would poll the sympathetic vote of the publicans, prostitutes and larrikins. This explanation was received with prolonged interruption, which was followed by cheers for Messrs Collins and Reeves. At this stage the Chairman announced that a collection would be taken up in aid of the funds of the Prohibition League. After the collection there was less interruption, and Mr Taylor continued his address. He claimed that the people of the colony wore waking up to the fact that the liquor traffic was a bar to the moral as well as to the commercial progress of the colony, and those who wished to stop the onward march of prohibition might as well go down to New Brighton beach and attempt to stop the tide coining in. He remarked that some of the decisions given in the Law Courts lately would by-and-by look as ridiculous as some of those given in America in connection with ill-treat-ment of slaves before the emancipation of the black race.

At the conclusion of the meeting a largo number of people followed Mr Taylor along the street hooting, and the police had to assist in keeping the crowd back. At the Opera House this evening a Prohibition meeting will be held for men only, admission to which will be by ticket.