NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

Northern Advocate, 27 July 1934, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND ALLIANCE

ANNUAL CONVENTION OPENS, THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. (Per Press Association.—Copyright.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. In his presidential address at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Alliance, which opened here today, the Rev. J. R. Blanchard, 8.A., said that the outstanding event in the past year had been the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in the U.S.A., and the return of legalised liquor. It hr beeh claimed that a revenue of £120,000,000 per annum would be obtained, but neither this nor any other promise made by the advocates of repeal was being fulfilled. There had been deplorable increases in drunkenness, and startling increases in fatalities due to intoxicated drivers. A special grant of £2,200,000 was to be issued to try to put down bootlegging, and seven new coastguard vessels, costing £2,P.00,000, were to be built to combat rumrunning. Congressmen had denounced the increase in the production of poisonous whisky and there were complaints of a 10 per cent increase in income tax, and of the repressive effect of heavy taxation on all enterprise. There had been a public outcry against drunken orgies by high school boys and girls in saloons, and an appeal had been made for a campaign by temperance organisations to arouse public opinion and compel drastic action. Several localities which had voted in favour of repeal had since voted again, some four to one, against saloons in their localities. There wore 21 States which still had their State prohibition laws not affected by the repeal of national prohibition. Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment ended an episode only; it had not solved the liquor problem in the U.S.A, nor terminated the conflict.

It was pleasing to note a further reduction in the New Zealand Drink Bill, although they were still spending £1,000,000 per anmim more for liquor than they found for .unemployment relief. It was to be feared that' some of the Drink Bill total, £5,000,045, for 1933, represented cash provided by taxation for unemployment relief that found its way ultimately across the liquor bar. Despite the reduction, drunkenness convictions accounted for over 51 per cent of distinct convictions in arrest cases, and every sixth conviction for drunkenness involved conviction for some other offence committed at the same time. Drinking at dances continued to cause concern to public authorities. The .Alliance had noted with pleasure the effective action of the police in a number of cases concerning liquor at cabarets and clubs. An aroused public conscience was needed to ensure the fullest cooperation with the authorities to help check an evil which, whilst happily not condoned by the, majority, was a grave menace to wholesome social pleasure. Interested persons were seeking to create sentiment in favour of removing licenses that were no longer necessary for the accommodation of the travelling public to places where they could do more business. Some would have them believe that largo numbers of tourists were travelling about the world looking for places where they could get alcoholic liquor, and that New Zealand's peerless scenic resources would fail to charm unless seen through alcoholic haze. Licensed hotels were not necessary to the wellbeing nr prosperity of any district. That a licensed hotel was not required for the convenience of the travelling public was a valid legal objection to the. renewal of the license, and such redundant licenses should not be renewed.

It was generally admitted that there was a large amount of after hours trading —virtual bootlegging—going on in many of the licensed hotels in New Zealand. The evil was not confined to small hotels. The six o’clock closing law had-done great good, but its beneficial effects were being nullified by widespread illegal trading which ought to be ‘ chocked. Happily they had cause for hope from the complaint of the liquor interests in an effort to induce young men to cultivate the beer drinking habit. An effort was to be made to get well-known athletes to allow their pictures to be used in association with liquor advertising. Safety on the roads and in the air demanded total abstinence from alcoholic liquor. Pre-eminence in sport demanded abstinence, and the tremendous nervous pressure of modern life made abstinence from alcohol the wisest course. The liquor interests should not be permitted to do anything tending to create the craving in those who did not use alcoholic liquor. The doom of alcohol as a beverage was writ large in all the circumstances of modern life.