TEMPERANCE MEETING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13701, 18 March 1908, Page 8

TEMPERANCE MEETING.

I THE NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN. j A meeting, under the auspices of the ■ Women's Christian Temperance Union, at i present in conference in Auckland, was held '. in the Baptist Tabernacle last evening, there being a good attendance of ladies. ; Mrs. Colo, the president of the union, occu- ! pied the chair. 1 ■ In her opening address, the president referred to the value of the now non-alcoholic medication, department of the union. She •also referred to the recently-published views of a gentleman, who was reported to have visited the United States on behalf of the liquor party. The position, the president said, was in no way so bad as had been represented, and she had been informed that the gentleman in question had gone to the wrong quarter for his information, ' and that no-license in the United States was progressing in a satisfactory manner. The Rev. A. A. Murray quoted the figures in connection with Clutha and Ashburton electorates as an argument for no-license. Coming nearer home, the speaker referred to the case of the Grey Lynn electorate, where, ,he said, the rates* from a formerly licensed building, now turned into shops, were of more value than the rates and taxes on the hotel under license. The Rev. Leonard Isitt said the evils of strong drink were not merely to be attributed to the hole I keepers, but to the manufacturers of liquor. He referred to the progress made by the no license party during the last 25 years, and to the value of the women's vote in deciding the question. On the subject, of the three-fifths majority, Mr. Isitt said ho could see no reason, why "the votes of two rapscallions should be equal to three reputable members of society." (Laughter and applause.) Still, for all that, a. Rood deal of good had been done, and he was assured the temperance party would eventually triumph. Mfes Roberts, of Christchurch, in speaking of the progress of prohibition in New Zealand, said that during six years the bare majority vote had increased from 3000 to 16,000, and that prohibition would have been carried in 36 electorates with it. What was wanted was a. fair field and no favour*: A programme of musical items was interspersed with the speeches, Mrs. Cook, Messrs. Ryan. Aspinall, and McElwaiu contributing to it.