ADDRESS TO YOUTH.

Manawatu Standard, 1 October 1935, Page 12

ADDRESS TO YOUTH.

A social was held recently in Bt. Andrew’s Hall under the auspices of the youth committee of the hew Zealand Alliance. An address was given by Rev. Raymond Simpson, who said that conditions in dry electorates in New Zealand were wonderful. In 3$ years in Gore, a town as large as Feilding, Mr Simpson said he had never once seen a drunken man. It was an absolute fact that in Gore and Invercargill there was a generation of children who had never seen a drunken man and who never knew what an hotel was. Commercial travellers and others had said of these “dry” towns that for business they were very sound. He said he could speak authoritatively on this as his own brother travelled in these dry areas for one of New Zealand’s greatest firms and his testimony was the same. In the old days in Gore under license an ex-milkman had told the speaker they found it hard 'often _to get their money in; when prohibition came it made a wonderful difference. Some said, continued the speaker, that prohibition might be successful on a small scale like that, but when it came to enforcing the law nationally it could not be done. That was not so; it was easier to enforce the law on a national scale than locally. Foreign missions were hindered by alcohol. David Brainerd nearly two hundred years ago had to face the problem among Ins beloved American Indians. Unscrupulous traders would get them drunk, rob them of their valuable skins and furs, get them into debt, and send them home to their families to starve for the winter; or they would then give them credit and then foreclose on their property. At first the poor heathen Indians thought Brainerd was one of these traders, out to fleece them and imfioverish them, and it was years before ie could gain their confidence and save them from the liquor. Mary Slessor nearly lost her life in Africa trying to stop two tribes from going to war. She succeeded temporarily, but then they got to drinking and Miss Slessor flung her clothing over the liquor and dared the braves to touch it. The older natives saw her wisdom and took whips and knotted cords and drove the younger braves back. America had repealed the liquor laws and it had been well described as “America’s greatest mistake.” The Chicago Daily News, which fought for repeal, in the course of an article on October 23, 1934, said that “Nothing more discreditable has developed since the repeal of prohibition than the downright repudiation of the Democratic Party’s pledge against the return of the old saloon. The existing tavern retains all the evils of the old saloon and has added new evils of its own. The old alliance between the saloon and politics has been resumed. Every promise that, after the restoration of the liquor traffic to legality, the business would be made and kept respectable and law-abiding, has been violated.” It was a significant thing that in America now there was a reversion in feeling. In several places under local option 29,531 people had voted dry and only 7291 wet. In Virginia since repeal, 11 out 12 districts have gone dry again. The president of the U.S. Browers’ Association said that in 8 or 10 States there is already a danger of drifting back towards prohibition unless a concerted fight is made against it. At a meeting of the California Hotel Men’s Association one prominent man said: “The present trend is sure to bring back State or national prohibition within five years or less.”