NELSON TEMPERANCE LEAGUE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 127, 30 May 1891, Page 2

NELSON TEMPERANCE LEAGUE.

— 0 ' TUe inaugural meeting of the Kelson ,< Touiperanoo Leaguo was held last evening ia < the l'rovinoial Hall at eight o'olook, when J there was a good attendance, a number of £ ladies being present, 1 The Revs. F. W. Ohattorton, F. W. Isitt, l and Thos. Bray were on the platform, and ! MjjThos. Field was in the ohair, < * The meeting was opened with prayer, ' after whioh. the ohairmaa said the reason he ! presided was because he had ftlvrajg beea cdffneoted with , temper.auoe niQyemeuta in » Nelson in the past. When he came to if el- t son some 10 or 12 years ago he was told that a there/ was a certain party in the town who a did Whatever they Uk«d. If therewaaajjett'i *'

era! eledfcfoii they returned fchefirt MwVt||Ml Bame thing happened in raunioipiil elections;; XV' Mo got a toll of the town ao^swntioVeicfilSf oarefally, ahahfl foand.tbstfclie majority dr"; the people in the city did not belong to this • patty. He, BBkod himself "How; ia this?*' He soon found out that the opposition aide would not take the trouble to vote, were ■taieop, -.vhilafc ih» other aide scoured the town, ond left no atone unturned, to acoompiish their own ends. . They (iho opposition) . sat down and did nbthipg. 'At r the last general eleotion they woke op a little, and what WJB f he result? They put their man in. Tliey Raid we will not allow this parly to govern ua, and they did not. They hadtha power, and ihey knew it, but, unfortunately the oppoaiion were going to Bleep again. Look at the lato eitotion of the Sohool Committee. They were beaten. The party are beginning to be all powerful again, aud f ha asked those present if they were going'* to allow suoh a state of affairs to exist. He hoped not. They had the power il they would : " : only aae, it, but if they wanted to acquire this .power they must turn out on polling days and vote, and they oould outvote the other side if they wished. (Applause.) He then passed on and referred to the drink evil; He described the colony of New Zealand at some length, stating that there were elements of sucoeas here for everyone, yet there was an enonrioaf * amount of misery and want. What w»V\&s&*--cause ? They had a population of 600,000, ' and they had 1,600 publio houaea. y " : \ Rev F. W. Isitt here said' there were 1666. r - ■ Mr Field : Now it ia acknowledged that on;' * the average one man is killed by drink every year by eaoh publio houae in the colony. But let us look at it from an economical point of view. The Publio Works Aot had pushed New Zealand ahead wonderfully, flow when this scheme was commenced, one of the planks of the platform waa to obtain 100,000 immigrants, and these immigrants coat ua £25 eaoh. Now there were 1666 publio housea in the colony killing 1665 men off every jear, costing the colony, at £25 a man, £50,000 a year. But the worst of it was it waa often the moat seasoned settlers that were carried off, uot the new vhums-it is our best settlors whowere killed, Therefore the drink traffic ooat the country 1666 lives and £50,000 annually. He thought it was about time to rise up and stay this great evil. Ihey had no bad feeling or ill will to the brewers or publioana, not the slightest. They were oitizena, and if some of the publicans had turned their hands to other pursuits they would have been leading men to-day. They were honestly eorry for theao individuals for their trade waa doomed, (Applause) Not only in this oountry bat in others. When he was at Home a few years ago the Compensation Aob was before the Houae of Commons. If they had to oompenaate the publioana of V England it would have ooat them £400,000,000. The people of England rose up and waid to their members, you muat not vote for this Aoc, and they did not. (Ap-' plause;. He was at Melbourne a few year* ugo and found that the feeliug about' the' drink waß entirely ohanged. there to what it was. Nelson was called Sleepy Hollow but he thought ifc waa now goiiig to wake lip. (Applause..) He hoped this' meeting,' this League, would be tut) meanfe of waking the people up. (Applause.) They oould carry any eleotion if they liked if they would only . come to the roll aud vote, (Applause.) The Rev. T. Bray, ttie Secretary of the League, explained how it was confuted. In April lust a meeting was oatled, and five gentlemen were nominated (6 aiitnd at tne late iioeuaiug eleotion in the temperance interests. That was tho commencement of the League. At the eleociou thay had aouieveda great viotoiy. (App.ause.) Tdey bad had only ifif teen tiaya to collect their forces, and yet, in the face of all the oppoai« nun, they had got in one of thbir candidates, and they were very proud of their M.L.Q, (Applause.) One of the publicans said to mm that day, " What are you going to do with ua now?" He replied, '•! don't know what we are going to do with you now, but wo are giviug you timely notice of what we mean to do to you eventually." (Laughter and applause.) The league was formed .to promote temperance interests and work, i'hero were now 60 members, but they warned to get 600. 4,'hey wanted money, aud they wanted to use it in this good work. Ha read a letter from Mr Smith, Temparanoa leoburer, Btating that he was ooming to Nelson. This announcement waa received with, great applause, ' ' : The Rev Mr Ohatterton, who waa warmly received, said ho did- not think that there waa anyone in the town who would not agtee with him that the question at issue was oue of great moral importance, " It was agitating the minds of toe people in all parts of the world. There waa little doubt ohat the drink trafflo inoreaaed enormously laat oentury. In the beginning of this oen tury delirium tremens waa quite unknown. In the laat 15 or 20 yeara so muoh had been done by the Temperance party that the ; brewers were beginning to shake in their shoea. Basa and Co s manager had said to » friend of his a short time ago that their trade waa ooming down to a common 10 par cent buaiuesa. Ten per cent on i was not bad interest, but before long it would come down lower than that. If they realised the responsibility that rested upou them all they would, do their beat to stop a trafflo whioh demoralized body, soul, and spirit, There were few present some'of whose friends or relations had not been brought under the terrible bane of drunkenness. He related a sad narrative referring to a resident in Coventry, who at one time was on the eve of being appointed Bishop of Mauritius but now was lying in a felOus dell convicted of forgery, and all oauaed by drink. English judges said that nine tenths of the crime of England was caused by drink, • Lord Coleridge, liord Chief JuatioVaaicH "dnuk was the cause of all crime," and judges in all pans of the world oomoided with this verdiot. He read aeveral extract! from varioua works including the Con* temporary Revitxo dealing with the drink iralho. One extraot written by a brewer want ao far as to say «• Were it not for drink pauperism would be nearly extinguished.'^ (.Applause.) Uunciman aaid " Drink ia, the iu root of all evil/' and he quite agreed with that writer. Drink had a remarkable way of making men aay untruthful thinga, London dootora at hospitals agreed ia stating that patienta who were viotim to drink were the moat difficult to understand, aa they naver apoke the truth. Drink seemed to rob a man of his moral sense and to distort hia moral views. One important thing they had to remember about the love for drink waa, thit it waa hereditary ; a drunkard muat of neoeaaity pass the germs of that loathioma dtseaae to his ohildren. The germs of alooholio disease were inborn, and the moderate drinker's ohild might find it far more difficult to resist the craving than his father aud to prevent the evil being trans* mitted the man muet not drink at all, How were they to atop the fearful curse, the ourae of intemperance, appearing in future generadona? They muat advance the oauue of Temperance. Ds Riohardaon said alcohol was a narootioandit shortened life, why then indulge? Life inauranoe companies were composed of good business men, all would agree with this. Ihey had found out that a moderate drinker did not live as long as a total abstainer, and' a total abstainer oould insure hia life foe ' less than a moderate drinker. The com-' paniea had made great oaloulatious, and had found out that this was oorreot. Now, the prinoipal question waa, " How are we to deal with theevil?" They had atarted aLwgue to promote temperance in all its branohes. Now, how waa. this, end to be aohieved? He dealt at aome length with total-pro-hibition and local option, and favoured the latter. He stated that there were now , in Canada 3,000,000 people living under pro. ' übition. (Applause.; That waa got by. . looal option. They did not get prohibition at one, and he thought if New Zealand was to do the same they would accomplish their objeot Booner than by trying to obtain pro* hibition at first, dome people said they muat have hotels, for man waa a sociable ' animal. He quite agreed that man was V ' sociable being, not an animal. But were uot the hundreda and thousands of total abstainers aooiable? Quite aa sociable, if not more ao, than the moderate drinkers lhat objeotion waa absurd on. the face of it. lhe temperance oauae waa making, rapid - progress. They had no ill-f«eling' 1 agaiuat X the pubhoana, not at all (Applause), Fifty yeara ago there was not oue pledged total abatamer, whereas now they had millions. They might look forward to ita' ultimate triumph if only they would help the oS • , One day the temperanoe cause muatifoand they, representing the people, had 7*4 lV ' in Nelson at any rate. (AsDlaiuo v ...,;.. Mr Field said that beffiSg Mrhitt to apeak, he wiahed to eay a few words about a cable which had appeared in that eyenffi 4 papor He referred to the wreck of the ; £ w £ bu I n ' Pwtawd.tha beautiful ship in ' the hands of drunken offlcera, and narrated how several livea had been lost, and aU beoause of the ourae of drink. The nautical enquiry, juat ended; said the oaptainand the mato were to blame t aa they were incapableowing to being drunk, • What a fearful Sun* ■ " this waa. Thousands of pounds and seferiSKirJ lives lost beoauae the Captain waa not sober : audheaaked how many similar ihata^oes^V.wero there of this nature' bobufMnir' heaihr^ every day, If n list publishefof^flf^Uvea and money that were. losV anmiailyVbT^drink, Ui wouia^uae people to ehudlPHp^f

DAttse men teoognlsed thai; o*l iuk waft the dynamite ol itooiety, ana that it hold in eolation not only the destinies of the English speaking ' Bwe, numbering nearly 200,000,000 by the «nd of the oentury, but the destinies of civiliwtion itself . And yet it vu rather the defenoe of a besieged position thau in itself a siege, for they fought to guard the home and to proteot humanity. He next proceeded to review some of their critics, and tailed the audience to witness the good nature with whioh he charged their opponents with having been just a little oowardly. For more than a week the Temperance party had given them as many faoti and figures as they could afford to pay for, If they could have paid for two columns of the Mail daily instead of only half a qolumn they would have given them four times as many. Bat not one of these figures or statements was challenged nntil reply was too late, when they were somewhat disoourteoualy oharged with issuing unreliable ttatittici. If they were unreliable why were they not challenged and disproved? Only two of their statements had been even, questioned. 1. A very friendly oritio had said that it must be incorreot to »y that only 6d went to the workman out of each pound expended in British drink manufacture, because the growth of hops, &0., involved more than that. But Mr Isitt urged that the estimate did not touch the qneation of the raw material, Given so muoh work, cotton, barloy, bops, &0,, and the mannfaoture of this raw material into useful articles gave the workman an average of 17s in the £, while drink manufacture gave them only 6d. These figures had been extensively oiroulated in Britain, and bad not been challenged by those who would have eagerly disproved them if they could. He would give them a few more figures to show how baseless were the fears of those who thought that suppression of the drink industry would mean a decrease of pros* perity, In New Zealand there were six Woollen factories, eaoh employing on an , average 144 persons, 11 clothing factories averaged 114 employees, 42 boat factories averaged 39, 58 foundries averaged 31, 135 printing offices averaged 16, but the brewer* ies, over 100 in number, could not average 5 employees each. • These figures had been published in Ohristohuroh, the oitadel of breweries, and no one had questioned them. The statements made at the meeting of Hay 6th as to adulteration of drink had been challenged, and he, Mr Isitt, had been kindly supplied with a copy of the Wine Trade Review for 1889 showing that stooks of wines in grape growing countries were too heavy to necessitate substitutes. At first reading it did seem to make out a good case. Bat at oat own door were enormous supplies of barley and hopi, yet the chairman of the meeting of May 6th, speaking as an expert, had given a very shady oharaoter to the supposed product of this abundant material, fie, Mr Isitt, could pronounce no opinion, If assured that Nelson beer beat the world for quality he mußt take it on trust. ,Bat on the contrary two of their opponents had assured him that a single gluts onoe made them giddy and ill, and at leaßt half a dozen beer driakers had spoken in similar strains. Turning to authorities for wine manufacture he learned the following faofca— that Gustafaen says: No manuiaoture is more difficult, and that variations in ueaspnß and other oiroum3tanoes render it impossible to secure sameness of flavour and colour, Yet that the publio taste has been educated to an artificially pro* duoed sameness, and would not accept a pure wine if it were offered them. ■ The Rhine crops, whether large or small! are bought by speculators, who multiply the yield five fold by the addition of water and a soapy substance made from potatoes whioh they call u sugar." Spain used to import nearly 8,000,900 gallons of obeap spirit from England, bat now gets a oheaper spirit from Prussia also made .from potatoes. This beoomes the baßiß of muoh Spanish wine, Champagne is largely made from carrots and other vegetables. Evidenoe was given before the House of Commons that where 20,000 pipes of port had been importtd 60,600 had been condemned. It might be urged that the substitutes were wholesome, but wiues made from vegetables laoked the sweetness and aatringenoy of grajpe products. Hence ohemioals were used, some innocent, but some of them deadly poisons. In eaoh number of the Wine Trade Jiecitw appeared an advertisement of " XEREZ. Used exten» eively for Fining and giving Body and Flavour to Poor and Spent Wines, and for Flavouring, Mellowing, and imparting the Softness of Age to Spirits of every deßcripa tion, Sold to the Trade only, Brown, Golden, Pale, and White Xerez. Directions for Use given to Purohaßerß. Protected by Letters Patent. In Butts, Hogsheads, Quarter-Casks, and Ootaves. Also Shipped, Free of Duty, for Export." What was Xerez but a ohemioal fraud 1 If it were not used- why did not the readers of the Bevitri,' <.«., the ' British wine traders, repudiate it ? The advertisement said it was 11 extensively üßed," and evidently it paid to advertise it for " the trade only." It gave to all spirits the mellowness of age The whisky, whioh only lost its poisonous fusel oil when it was old could be made to seem old by the addition of Xerez, and its, deadliest property was disguised by another ohemioal. Fining was another property of X«rez, Fining meant " olearing oloudy and musty . wines." What fining properties Xerez might possess was a seoret, but the Wine Guide, a London publication, in 1871 counselled wine merchants to clear oloudy and mußty wineß with sugar of lead " Orflla on Poisons " said that sugar of lead gave a sweet and astringent taste, but caused oonstriotion of the throat, vomiting, coldness of limbs, convulsions, delirium, <feo,, &o, No wonder that evening wines meant morning headaohes. In Britain beer was adulterated with salt and water, strengths ened by oOonlus indious, It was not teetotal organs that said this, but the Pharmaceutical journal commenting on a month's stock of 1066 bags of this drug asked « Is there a legitimate use of this drug in such quantities"? To this the Lancet replied " No, and we unhesitatingly affirm it is put into malt liquor to give it strength and headinessi" If drug? so deadly find their way into beers and wines was it soientifio for dootors to prescribe them as dietetics until assured of their purity, or might not the moat moderate drinker run an immoderate risk ? Mr Isiit urged that looal option ought to be granted and replied to the objeotion thai it involved coercion; He also dealt wiib the j question o! compensation. In oonolusion he admitted that moderate drinkers generally held a higtaar position and commanded a wider outlook than teetotallers. Theirs was the standpoint of the lounger on the cliffs able to soan the horizon, watching with critical eye the doomed vessel and with languid interest her struggles to resoh a safe anoborage. The teetotallers had a platform bat 80ft, by 7orß or thereabouts. But small and confined aB it was, it v» instinct, with helpfulness for it was a life boat, And as they bent to the oars they paused but for a moment to shoal to the oeoupant of the I higher platform, "Criticise if yon please, sneer if yon like, but for God's sake don't barn any false lights to lead others into danger, for we have more than we oan manage to resoua those that are perishing already." (Applause.) . A collection was then made, af tor whioh the Rev. F. W, Ohatterton pronounced the benediction, The Be'v. T F Bray, requested those wishing to join : the league to remain, and many accepted the invitation. For the seasonable, the attaaotive, the fascinating in material, shapes, style, and the very latest lasbionß and novelties jnst to band per steamer Bimutaka, ladies should not fail to embrace the opportunity now offered, and pay a visit to the mantle department, at Te Aro House. 1 1 We are now showing some marvellous " oreations " in ladies' sealette jackets, and specially note the following :— " The Melba," with deep beaver faciog, high Fife collar, whioh oan be worn in four distinot ways, and at prices ranging from 3 to G guineas : " The Bamsay," faced with nutria fur, reversible collar, cord ornaments, latest styles, from 2 to 4 guineas, at Te Aro House. An exceedingly handsome garment is " The Douglas " gealette jacket, faoed with Persian lamb and real astraoban, high reversible medioi eollar, lined silk throughout, from 2J to 6 guineas. An equally charming sealette jacket is "The Isle, of Wight," with deep laoing and oollar of pure equirrel fur, price 6 guineas, at Te Aro House. Id plush, seal, plushette, and eealette jaokete we have an immense variety, A finer assortment was never yet shown in the colony. The, new stock is larger, better MlwWd, »nd more complete than we have eves previously bean able to exhibit, and we are sure that any lady requiring the latest fashions in jackets of every description, ulsters, mackintoshes, fur-lined oloaks, travelling wraps, &0., will find everything desirable now on view, at Te Aro House,