FATHER HAYS AT THE CHORAL HALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12954, 25 August 1905, Page 3

FATHER HAYS AT THE CHORAL HALL.

THE EMPIRE AND ITS MENACE.

The Very Rev. Father Hays delivered a temperance lecture at the Choral Hall last, evening, entitled "The Empire and its Menace." Mr. E. Mahonj occupied the chair, and upon the platform were, among others, the Revs. Canon Haselden, R. Sommerville, Fathers Corcoran and Buckley, and Messrs. G-. Fowlds, M.H.R., M. Casey, J. J. O'Brien, W. J. Speight, W. P. Leyland, AVesley Spragg, and E. McKeown. The hall was crowded. The rev. gentleman said that if the people were to rise to the full responsibility of the evils of drink, they must first take the blinkers from their own eyes and do their utmost to grapple with what was a national menace. As he looked down the long vista of the past 100 years he saw wondrous and wonderful events. They had the force of steam, the speed of electricity, and the power of the press. Commerce had gathered the people of the world into markets, and trade had interwoven the different interests of the world. With all this, democracy had arrived. It had come gradually and surely, gathering strength, forcing' down all barriers that once opposed it, and levelling all things as with the sweep of a tidal wave. The workingman was a power in the world, he had to help to build the Empire, to live its life, and his weapons were freedom and universal education. Yet with all these powers and advantages there was a disease that lay close to the heart of the British Empire, a disease of the most fatal kind, that caused one-third of the madness in the lunatic, asylums, and that prompted directly or indirectly 75 per cent, of all crime, which caused the greater part, of the pauperism of the people, and which ruined men and women of every degree of culture and profession. That day he had seen a poster in the district of Ponsonby which warned the people of the evils of drink, and he hoped that similar steps would be taken in every town in New Zealand. Drink was the national sin, the national vice, and the national crime. The richest and most powerful nation in the world might view with alarm the vast annual expenditure of £170,000,000 upon drink. That large sum was only the direct costto the nation. There was' the indirect cost. The cost of pauperism, crime, insanity, destitution, sickness and disease is all caused by drink. There was also the loss, of the productive labour of those who were incapacitated and indisposed by drink, the loss to capitalists, employers, and workpeople generally, from accidents, from waste of material, absence and incapacity. Looking at all these the total cost to the Empire would not be. short of £350,000,000 per annum. The disgrace that was'at Home was also the national crime abroad. It followed the British flag wherever it was carried and dealt out to pagan nations disease, crime, and death. Drink deteriorated the race: there was no question about that. A nation's greatness depended upon its individuals, upon their mental and moral development, for to be truly great as a. nation they mast be great as individuals. If the nation was to be efficient and successful and take its part in the civilising of the world, it must depend upon the faculties, the brain, and the power of the people, upon their efficiency in the home, in the market, and in the workshop. Unless something was done, what would be the future of "the Empire? Were not the people responsible for the terrible condition of the nation? Drink was responsible for all the evils. But for drink there would not be wretched slums or wretched people to live in them. (Applause.) The Rev. 11. Walker moved, "That the meeting urgo upon all patriotic people the continuance of the crusade." Mr. George Fowlds, M.H.R., seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. At the conclusion a' large number of pledge curds were handed around for signaffcllMU