REV. L. M. ISITT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5598, 26 May 1905, Page 6

REV. L. M. ISITT.

PUBLIC WELCOME. MEETING AT THE TOWN HALL. Tho Rev. L. M. Isitt was tendered a welcome back to New Zealand last night at a public meeting in the Town Hall, which hold a very largo audience. Tho chair was occupied by .Mr J. G. W. Aitken, AI.H.R, Numerous prominent workers in tho temperance cause occupied seats on the platform, including Messrs Taylor and Fisher, M.H.R.’s.

The chairman said he had been a personal friend of Air Isiit for the last twenty years, and during all those years ho had known no ill of him, whatever good he (Mr Aitken) might believe Air Isitt had accomplished. Ho heartily welcomed Air Isitt, in their name, back to New Zealand. He was pleased to sco that Air Isitt had done such good work during tho last five years in tho Old Country, and wished him health and strength for the work which lay before him. Tito Rev. Air Dawson, chairman of tho New Zealand Alliance executive, read a number of telegrams of welcome to Atr Isitt from various temperance organisations throughout the colony, and also from leading temperance workers in New Zealand. He assurer! Air Isitt that tho people everywhere, those who cared for their fellow-men and tho good of mankind, would bo glad to see him. Air A. R. Atkinson and the Rev. Air Fairclough also extended a welcome to Air Isitt.

Mr Taylor, M.H.R., who was received with continuous applause, acknowledged tho kindly reception with tho suggestion that unless they _ were careful he should come and live in Wellington, and then there would be so much work for the lawyers that they would all mako fortunes in a very short time. (Laughter.) ‘We’re to have 'a go’ to-morrow night,” said Mr Taylor, “and I shall he" very much more at home, because, while I love Leonard Isitt, I like a meeting where it is all tight, and where there is very little parade work.” He paid a tribute to tho organising work done hy the Rev. F. AV. Isitt, and to the front-rank fighting done by the Rev. Leonard Isitt. New Zealand, from a diplomatic standpoint, in his opinion, did a good thing whoa the prohibitionists of tho colony endorsed his trip to the Old Country. They were right in sending him, and equally right in urging him back for tho next six months’ work, for Mr Isitt, who laid tlm foundation of this reform movement thirteen years ago, had done more to further the movement than all the other prohibitionists put together. The future was absolutely full of ' hard work. It was their aim to see that the children were educated on this question of liquor, and to see that they got a sound education in regard to physiological matters. England drank because she had been taught to drink, but in New Zealand they wore not going to allow their children to become drunkards, because they proposed to teach them the danger of it. The minority, represented by the liquor party, had got to learn that the decent men and women of New Zealand, the men who placed tho interest of their children and their homes and country above everything else, were going to govern this land, in spite of all tho liquor organs in New Zealand and all the capital they could command.

Tho following resolution was carried by acclamation:—“That this meeting of Wellington citizens extends its heartfelt welcome to the Her. Leonard Isitt on Ms return to the colony after an absence of nearly fjvo years; assures him of tho pride and pleasure with which it has observed the magnificent success of his temperance mission in the Old Country ; and pledges itself, with his encouragement and assistance, to increased efforts for the cleansing of this young colony from the greatest scourge of modern civilisation.” The Lev. L. M. Isitt, •who received an ovation on rising to address the audioace, thanked them earnestly for the cordial and generous reception they had given him. He only hoped that he might be able to conduct himself during his six months’ sojourn in New Zealand as not to disappoint their expectations. H© congratulated the city of Wellington upon the rapid progress it had made during the last five years, and also the colony upon the moral •progress it had made—and that was the best progress of all. His march through Australia had been a glorious one. Instead of the state of despair in which be had seen South Australia five years ago, ho found the people jubilant and girding their loins for the supreme effort which they intended making twelve months hence, when they would have a chance of wiping out one-third of the liquor trade. In Victoria the Premier had given a distinct promise to bring down a bill affirming the principle of local option, and without compensation. And when he had the privilege in Sydney of lunching -with the Chief Secretary ho was informed that the New South Wales Government had determined to carry a bill giving absolute control of the liquor traffic to the people, and with no compensation; and, further, tho Chief Secretary came on to his (Mr Isitt’s) platform afterwards, and told the audience of the Intentions of his Ministry. The forces of the temperance party, when they marched, always marched onward. They might he checked, but when they moved, . they moved forward. Dealing with the liquor traffic in the Old Country, Mr Isitt condemned in strong terms the Licensing Bill forced through the Home Parliament by tbe Balfour Government. He wished he could have transported every decent citizen of this colony iqto London on the day when the bill came down for consideration, and let them walk in single file down tho lobby to see the galleries that were crowded with men who were stamped with tho impress of their own sad trade. Victory, however, would bring disaster, as it had done in tho past. Prominent Conservatives had said, “Wo want to stand by our party, but we won’t sacrifice the whole nation at tho bidding of Mr Balfour or any other man.” He believed tbe carrying of that measure would spell ruin and overthrow the present British Government; and he wisjied “Godspeed” to the Liberal party in their endeavours to undo the evil that measure had accomplished. During the last twenty years there had been an entirely new development of the liquor traffic in England, for it had seized upon, tho womanhood, the motherhood of the nation, and its growth had been so rapid that tb© percentage of arrests of drunken women had risen from 8 to 22 per cent. Throughout the length _ and breadth of that land, which called itself Christian,' children not in scores, but in thousands, were being rather damned into this world than born into it—born amongst environments that made it a foregone conclusion that the girls would become harlots and the boys criminals, all influence for good driven from their sight, in dens of guilt whore sin and

sin alone was made the law that all around obeyed, and the liquor traffic stood behind' this groat wrong upon the child-life of the Old Land. He was not a pessimist, but it would be madness not to recognise the magnitude of the evil. He was glad to see that this was being recognised, and that public opinion was being strengthened in the view that something must be done, in spite of the politician, to check the evil. He saw the foundation of a very great and sanguine expectation. They had hoard much of the fiscal problem and of the dear and the cheap loaf, but if they shut off the liquor-tap of England they could give the people their broad free, and pay them seventy millions a year for working their jaws to cat it. The business men of England, faced with tbo keen competition of sober nations, began to recognise that much commercial success depended upon the artisan with the steady hand and the clear brain, and who made the best uso of the unimpaired powers that Gcd had furnished him with. They were beginning to see the effect of the harm that liquor was causing to the nation from a commercial standpoint, and in that recognition there was ground for gratification. So far as New Zealand was concerned, the whole position was in their hands, and it was a work that would lend dignity to anyone who engaged in it. “I pray said Mr Isitt, in conclusion, ‘That this meeting may result in some good and practical ■work. God help you to close every liquor-bar in this fair land, and God speed tho right.” (Loud applause.) Mr Isitt was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address.