GOOD TEMPLARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4291, 14 August 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

GOOD TEMPLARY.

A iree lecture was delivered in the Temperance Hall last evening by Mr. W. J. Speight, Graud Worthy Chief Templar. The weather was anything but propitious; and the attendance was considerably affected thereby ; as it was, about 200 persons were present. The subject of tho lecture was, " The object of Good Tcmplary, and the means of its attainment." The chair was taken by the Rev. S. Edger, and tho ode, "Friends of Temperance," having been sung, the chairman introduced the lecturer, and stated that this was intended to be one of a series of monthly lectures. I The present lecture would treat of two great points—individual temperance, and tho political aspect of the the question. Tho lecturer proceeded to treat his subjet in a fluent manner. A mere outline of tho points of tho lecture is all that can here bo attempted. He said that Good Templary. had clearly demonstrated that it had nothing to fear from careful scrutiny or honest criticism. The object of Good Tcmplary was to effect a radical and complete change in the habits of the people in reference to the use of intoxicating drinkß, —to banish tho curse of strong drink entirely from the land. Drunkenness was, he said, a curse that stands head and shoulders above all the vices that disgrace God's universe. The wrong remedy had been applied to the eviL Drunkenness was not to be suppressed by patching-up licensing laws, or by making drinking respectable in moderation, and criminal when that undefined and every-shif ting boundary was passed. The real remedy would not be found except by aiming at its cause—tho drinking habits of the people. The greatest obstacle to the progress of Templary was the revenue obtained from intoxicants. The popular political fallacy was that the revenue thus obtained was essential to carrying on the Government of the country, and the fact that by constant indulgence the custom of drinking had become almost second nature. The lecturer then gave statistics, shewing the large quantity of alcoholic liquor imported to and manufactured in the colony. Five thousand convictions for drunkenness during the year and a number of suicides from drunkenness gave, he said, a faint idea of the results of the drink traffic in this colony. He then appealed very earnestly to his auditory to assist in the crusade against drinking and drunkenness, which could only be carried to a successful issue by abstinence by the individual and prohibition by the State. Having graphically described the influence, personal and social, of drinking habits, and the benefits which attend the practice of nepotism, he would ask all, while they may still do so, to retreat from the tavern and the gaminghouse, and to regard those places as the centres of moral danger and death. —After another ode had been sung, the lecturer spoke on the second head of his subject: The means of obtaining the object of Good Templary. These means were briefly, social influence and political action, having for its object the legislative prohibition of the liquor traffic. It was true, he admitted, that tho Legislature could not force any man to the path of right and virtue; but it could, at least, refuse to license his tempters and refuse to receive the price of his shame. It would, he said, be better to pay the taxation direct from our own pockets than to have it filched from the people through the gia-shope. The cry of the revenue was a shallow one, after all, and the greatest statesmen saw that there was little to be apprehended on that score. He considered tliat the will of the people should be the controlling power of the liquor traffic. He criticised severely tho conduct of the Press, in opposing temperance views, and animadverted in a most emphatic manner upon the letter of an Auckland correspondent, published in a Queensland paper.— The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the lecturer and the chairman.