MR SIEVWRIGHT "THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT."

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8791, 18 January 1897, Page 3

MR SIEVWRIGHT "THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT."

" The Prohibition Movement " was the subject of the lecture delivered by Mr Sievwright at Hampden on Thursday evening The lecture was given in aid 01 the funds of the Mechanics' Institute, j and Mr Win, Murcott, Mayor, presided, and briefly introduced Mr Sievwright, who was well receivod. He expressed his pleasure at their having such an excellent Institute in Hampden, and a wellselected library. Theso were educational forces in a community that the people should not lightly esteem. By an easy turn Mr Siovwright spoke of the illustrious English patriot from whom the town of Hampden derived its name. The lecturer referred to the stand Hampden had taken against injustice and tyranny, and of how ho had ' roused the spuit of tho English people against imposition, and paid a tribute to tho inhabitants of H amp Jen in that they had sot their faces against the injustice and tyranny of the prohibition movement in New Zealand Tho speaker went on to trace tho history of prohibition movoments, and pointed out that ever and anon nghc down through history there had been prohibitionists who had attempted to tyrannise, by forco of majority, over others. Ever and anon there had arisen parties, fictions and sects who had declared that all who could not or would not pronounco their " Shibboleth " wero wrong. The factions or sects deemed it right to persecute others, and to coerce disbelievers in dogma into the adoption of their particular creed. In pursuing tho persecuting plan thcho infatuated people considered they were acting rightly. They acted on tho plan of Mahomet, who had said that " Any other religion besides his w<u> heretical, and therefore to bo destroyed ; and that which agreed with Mahommedanism was superfluous." Tho lecturer showed that in the Mahommedan religion the first prohibition of the use of alcoholic beverages was made, so that it was absurd co miagino as some did that leverond this or reverend that were tho inventors of this precious dogma, prohibition He regretted that Mahommed should, however, have so many followers in this respect in that c >lony, and that so-calli'd Christian ministers should seek to impoao this tenet of a false religion upon a Christian nation. Even the leaders of the prohibition movement had passed resolutions that the profession of this particular tenet of Mahommedanism should be necessary to admission to the Christian Church in this colony , and he had been informed that a minister in Oamaru hid required his choir and congregation to sing songs in laudation of prohibition. He did not blame these people tor carrying on like that, for he believed they were perfectly conscientious in their belief and in thenaction ; and had a peifect right to act as they thought fit in tho matter ; but he objected to these good folks endeavoring to make their belief and way of living by Act of Parliament tho belief and way of living for the entire community. Mr bievw right de-ilt at length with tho history of the prohibition movement in America, and touched upon tho drinking customs and habits of Bntish people with the restrictions imposed for the encourage I ment of temperance, and with racy historical anecdote lit up this portion »f his lecture. He pointed out that there was a vast gulf unbridgeable between temperincc—a virtue— and prohibition— an inf,itu<ition. Tho propagation of _ temperance by education, moral suasion, and the power of example was too slow for some so-called temperanco felk who had contracted the Mahommedan disease of piohibition. Prohibition being infectious it spread with the rapidity of smallpox among the people, and was evidently still spreading. Prohibition sought to establish itself upon tho minority by the power of a majoiity; when the abstinence from the use or the liberty to use alcoholic beverages should bo left to the decision of the "individual taste and conscience. Drunkenness was a sin and a disease, and bad as it was and much to be deplored, thei o were 100 times more people infected with prohibition than with drunkenness. He was pleased that the vast majority of tho people of the colony had determined to keep themselves free of both diseases. Referring to the local option poll, he said a prohibitionist, the Rev. Edward Walker, chimed a victory for the prohibitionists, but tho lecturer thought the Rev. Walker's statement on the local option poll was, very much like the statement in tho French history books on tho battle of Waterloo. The French asserted they won that battle, but all Europe knew that it was tho decisive victory that won for the people of Europe liberty and freedom, and laid out the tyranny of French oppression. So might, said the lecturer, Hie people of New Zealand regard their victory at the polls over their enemies— the prohibitionists. Mr Sievwright, after showing what reforms consistent with true temperance and liberty and justice could be effected in the trade in alcohoUo beverages, oonoluded an earnest, thoughtful, and interesting lecture. i The motion of a vote of thanks, proposed in a complimentary smsech by Mr A. M'Kerrow, was carried with three cheers for the lecturer,

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