PROHIBITION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11255, 6 July 1922, Page 10

PROHIBITION

THE CAMPAIGN OPENED VIGOROUS ADDRESS AT THE TOWN HAUL. EVILS OF the; trade. TIIO New Zealand prohibition campaign was opened at the Town Hall last evening, when addresses were delivered by Mr L. M. Isitt, M.P., and the Rev. R. B. S Hammond, of Australia. There was a large audience, which indulged for'-halt an hour before +he meeting commenced in community singing, under Hr W. H. HindlO, The Mayor (Hr R„ A. Wright, H.P.) presided. Among those present were several members of Parliament, including Messrs A. S. Malcolm, J. S. Dickson, A. Harris, F. Mander, J. Edie, J. A. Hanan, J. Bitchener, and J. A. Young. A BLOODLESS FIGHT. Mr Wright said he was glad the great fight on drink, question was to be carried out in a bloodless war. There should never be in tbe heart of any reasonable man or woman in such a country as New Zealand a desire for revolution. Everyone had the right to express his or her opinion through the ballot box. The two speakers who would address* the meeting were probably the beet authorities on the liquor question south of the Line.

THE LFOPARD AND ITS SPOTS. Mr L. M. Isitt, M.P., congratulated the Mayor upon his position as chairman that night. Mr Wright was ipresont because he was a red-hot prohibitionist. (Applause.) The liquor trade and the Moderate League would say that they Were present because they were a lot oi cranks. Other people called them /'wowsers/* (Laughter.) in regard to the newspapers, he eaid he was sorry for the "purchased and paid Press/' (Laughter.) "We are here to-night," he eaid, ''because behind us stands the eternal God/' because wo believe in love for our God which does not sell our JU>ve for our fellow-men. (Applause.) Wo are here because, in some faint manner, we have the spirit of Christ. We are here because our cause is absolutely right." (Applause.) He would be perfectly satisfied, he said, if his tombstone was inscribed with the words ' Sacred to the memory of L. M. Isitt, Prohibitionist." All the evidence they required of the right of their cause was contained in the fatuous efforts of their opponents in defending their trade. The liquor leopard could not change its spots; it might: change the price of it« spots-^laughter)— It might change the .place where they were sold, or the men who sold them; ■but tk© natjjre of the spots could not be changed. The consumption of alcohol could no more be controlled or regulated than tlie consumption of opium. Out of every hundred men who took alcohol as a beverage ten became its victim. He denounced the liquor trade as the dirtiest and the vilest traffic on the faoe of the earth. It stripped the clothing from the backs of the children; it ruined family life: and it worked misery right along the line. The legislation enacted by Parliament years ago, he eaid, restricting tbe number of barmaids in the country had been quite ineffective. The barmaids bad been made immortal, married. There weve just as many barmarried. There wear just as many barmaids in New Zealand to-day ae there were forty years ago. The Government had announced that it did not intend to bring down licensing legislation this session. In effect* the Government said:

"You have the licensing committees. It would be foolish to end this traffic. Wait awhile, and then we will set to work and do everything you want to reform thie evil trade." "Just as sure you legalise the liquor traffic for the next thTee years," he declared, "you will bring about the same terrible record of crime, misery, and wretchedness it has always occasioned." In conclusion, Mr Isitt said he believed the present campaign would be successful. In the name ot God he appealed to the people to put their whole heart and energy into the fight.

PROHIBITION IN ICELAND. The Rev. Dawson, secretary of the New Zealand Alliance, contradicted the statements that Iceland had gone back upon prohibition by reading the following cablegrams "Stefanseon never prohibition leadez. Bitter opponent before and since law adopted. Prohibition most successful." — President of tbe World Prohibition Federation. "Iceland prohibition great success, but most reluctantly suspended for a year respecting wipe exclusively owing to Spanish threat* to ruin fish industry/’— United Kingdom Alliance. "Have just returned from Iceland, direct prohibition regarded there great success; sentiment stronger than ever, but closing Spanish market means present IO6S of twenty thousand tons of fish. Iceland has not repealed prohibition, but in view of the -Spanish threat, Iceland Parliament voted to suspend law as to wines one year, if necessary, and appropriated money to arrange for new market. They will get new market, and resume drastic prohibition." Hon. John G. Woolley. PROHIBITION IN THE UNITED STATES. The Rev. R. B. S. Hammond, rector of St. Barnabas's Church, Sydney, and one of the leading prohibition advocates of Australia, said he had had experience of the evils of the drink traffic tor twentyfive years. In the last 10J years he had seen 75,000. men and women convicted !for drunkenness in the police courts of Sydney. He had seen the damning uses and influences of alcohol. He had seen it drag people down in the mire, he declared impa6sionedly; he had seen lives cut short by alcohol, and others made miserable, sordid and wretched, and he had consecrated his life to freeing hi 9 fellow J beings from wretchedness and to making the traffic impossible in the days to come. (Applause.) . Proceeding, he told of the conversion of previous drinkers he had met to the cause of prohibition. He spoke of one man in Seattle who spent 50,000 dollars in fitting up a wonderful bar. When prohibition wa9 introduced the licensee declared he would not vote to restore the traffic in the State of Washington. The introduction of prohibition in that State has shown that it worked. It had been carried by a majority of 18,000, and was now being maintained and upheld by a majority of 200,000. Prohibition had originally be©" voted in Colorado by a majority of 12,001, the men only voting. Two years later it was retained at a second poll by 85,C00. (Applause.) Similarly in Michigan, which was first voted dry by a majority of 68,000, prohibition was, after two years, retained by a majority of 206,000. It had been voted in Missouri in 1896 by a majority of 8000, and after twenty-five years it waa retained by a majority of '405,000. He had the opinion of a judge of the United States, upon oath, that prohibition was enforceable by law ana that it was the greatest single factor in the cause of law and order. In a final burst of oratory the speaker appealed to his hearers to vote prohibition, thus making this year stand out in the history of the country, and doing a thing that would live in all the years to come and bring joy into hearts innumerable.

At the conclusion of the meeting a canvass was made in the hall for guarantees of regular contributions to the campaign funds.