BLUE RIBBON ARMY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 4046, 28 February 1888, Page 2

BLUE RIBBON ARMY.

There was a large attendance at the Bine Ribbon Army's meeting last night, to hear addresses from Mesdames Packe, Venables, and Shephard, of Chriatchurch, who attended as representatives of the Women's Christian Temperance Union an organisation started here, it will be remembered, by Mrs Leavitt a year or two since.

After the opening exercises, Mr Milligan introduced Mrs Packe, who gave a brief account of the rise and progress of the Union. It was started in the year 1874, in America, in the State of Ohio. In the republic it had sproad rapidly, and now numbered 200,000 members, divided into 10,000 local unions, spread over 38 states and 9 territories. Miss Willard, a lady of great mental power, was at the head of affairs. From America the movement had communicated itself to Great Britain, where some 24,000 women had been enrolled. Still further had the cause gone on, until affiliated Unions had been established in the Sandwich Islands, in Victoria, and in New Zealand—the last-mentioned colony possessing 10 Unions, and the National Union, of which the speaker was president. Mrs Packe concluded by denouncing alcohol in every form and declaring in favor of prohibition. Mrs Venables entered into detail as to the work of the Union, remarking that it was a working, not a talking, organisation. Mrs Shephard read an ably-written paper on female suffrage, and quoted from several leading Home politicians, to show that some of the ablest thinkers of the day favored the extension of the franchise to women.

After votes of thanks had been passed to the speakers,

Mrs Packe took a vote of the women present as to whether the Oamaru branch of the Union should be re-organised at once, or that the matter stand over until the arrival of Mrs J. Lucas, from England, or any of the American women. The meeting decided to take the firstmentioned course, and the proceedings closed.