THE CAPTURE OF THE ALLIANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10507, 29 July 1897, Page 5

THE CAPTURE OF THE ALLIANCE.

AN INTERESTING MANIFESTO. DIVISION IN THE TEMPERANCE CAMP. COMPLAINT OP THE OUTGOING EXECUTIVE,

[IT TBMdgidl.— ASSOCIATION, Wellington, Wednesday, The Post contains a manifesto entitled "The Capture of the Alliance, 31 signed by the late Chairman, and endorsed by the Rev, J. Kennedy Elliott and other members of the outgoing executive. It states that the essential facts have been suppressed in the annual report, and that the Prohibit

tionist has refused insertion to an explanation by the Seoretary, The control of the Alliance, it continues, has been taken from its own members and transferred to the Prohibition League. The alleged representative character of the new executive is described as fictitious, two non-prohibi-tion bodies being represented, and only one representative assigned to the Good Templars, the largest prohibition body in the colony, while three out of the twenty-two are assigned to the Alliance. The proceedings at the annual meeting are stated to have been irregular, unqualified persons voting without check, so that the despatch of the Alliance was not the work of its own members. It was two things chiefly—the conversion of the Alliance into « party engine, and the deprivation of Its übacribers of the right to elect their executive —that led to the withdrawal of the officers and many of the old executive. It adds: Hundreds of earnest workers who disapprove at the League's methods now find themselves without an organisation to which they can attach themselves. In conclusion, it says that the capture was as piratical as was ever perpetrated. It was effected by misrepresentation, without notice, in defiance of all constitutional proprieties, and without even the knowledge of the great majority of the thousands of Alliance supporters.