The Rev. L. M. Isitt at the Public Hall.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 4999, 13 June 1891, Page 4

The Rev. L. M. Isitt at the Public Hall.

The Rev. L. M. Isitt, of Sydenham, addressed a meeting in the Public Hall bat night in favor of the Prohibition cause. There was a fairly large attendance. The chair was occupied by Mr G. Jones, sen., who briefly introduced the rev. gentleman. Mr Isitt said he was quite sure in coming before them he had a good cause, bnt he was not so sure that the cause had a good advocate. They had been having stormy weeks in Christchurch, or at any rate in Sydenham, and no one could go through the amount of anxiety he and his feDow workers had gone through without becoming to a certain extent run down. To any man who loved God properly followed a consequent love for humanity, and this love might well serve to stir his heart and qutcken his pulsations in the face of difficulty and danger. They must, as the old Methodist parson said, take for their consolation that glorious old passage of Scripture " Fabit heart never won fair lady." The recent election in Oamaru had, so far as he knew, been upset on a mere technical point raised by those gentlemen whose love for humanity showed itself in a desire to override the expressed wish of the people by a quibble. Nevertheless the temperance party weie ready to repeat the struggle. _ He felt sure that the sense of fairplav of the people of Oamaru would be put into operation and that the public would resent the action of those who were trying to force their wretched liquor traffic upon an unwilling community. After the recent decision of Judge Denniston, an opinion was freely expressed that the best thing the Sydenham Prohibition Committee could do was to resign at once, and the Christchurch Press canm out with a leading article commending this course to the Committee. They always made a point, when the devlt otfere d his advice, of acting exactly contrary to the advice offered, and this was, therefore, the manner in which they accepted the advice of the Press. They were told that Judge Denniston's decision was a crushing one and that it knocked Prohibition utterly on the head. Personally he thought that whatever way that decision was taken it was a big victory for the Prohibition party. That decision might be. and he believed it was. a wrong decision. The point with which it dealt had not been fully argued before the Court. The opposition had argued simply on the question of the validity of the Returning officer's appointment, and Sir Robert Stout had only touched upon the question of bias incidentally, confining his energies almost entirely t<> the Returning Officer's appointment. The Prohibitionists, had thought the question of bias as one on which it was unnecessary to dilate, and the consequence was the decision had come as a surprise to both parties. The •Judge him.-eit was not satisfied, and stronscty advised that the question be carried before a Court of Appeal. Some points in the decision, he thought, were wrong- Judge Denniston had said that the Act never intended a majority of the people to say to a minority that the} were not to have drinking conveniences in their midst. This, he imagined, needed qualification, as tinder the Local Option Act any community where no ptiblichouse existed could say there should be none opened. Even if they lost theappeal against the decision, they had still a strong weapon in their hands. They would only close a certain number of the houses ; but even that was a good tiling, as it lessened the evil and would help to wean the people from it. They would be weakening the cause. There wa.; no case in the world s history where liberty, once given to the people, had been afterwards rescinded b\ retrogressive legislation. Everybody, so far. had thought that the community could close all the hotels if a majority of the people wished it. They might interpose what legal barriers they liked, but public opinion would pile higher until it must sweep away the barrier. A few years would see the direct veto in force in New Zealand. They must sweep the liquor traffic out of existence once and for all. Why should it exist ? ho said it should exist I Nobody but the publicans, brewers, spirit merchants, gentlemen who had relatives associated with the trade, and men who liked a drip. He. as a minister of the Gospel, had been reprimanded for taking an active part iu a sociat and political question, aud had been told that he ought to stick to his pulpit and let such things alone. The time was at an end for such bigotry. hy was the complaint so very prevalent that half the churches were always empty I Simply because half the parsons went on preaching at>out Moses aud Elijah and Adam, instead of dealing with the great Stiestions of the day and social evils, and jus playing a practical and sensible part in bringing prosperity to the people. A clergyman once went to an intemperate barber to get shaved and the man cut him. whereupon the minister, with a view to improving the occasion, drew attention to the cut with the remark "There, tlu>ie. John, the drink again." "Ties, replied the barber, '"it do make the skin uncommon tender." Drink did make the skin uncommon tender, and when a man ran after him and deprecated his taking up the quest ton of Prohibition on the grounds of his being a minister, he knew at once that man was no teetotaller, or. if he was a temperate man himself, he had someone directly interested in ttie_ liquor traffic. The men who were found in the ranks of their opponents always had either appetite or interest at the root of their hindrance of a great reform. A letter had recently appeared in a local journal signed •'lndex." That tetter was, of course. au anonymous letter. It was a curious thing that almost all the letters emanating from the Moderate side were anonymous letters. They had not the courage to put their names to them. " Index' talked of " wind-basr oratory and calm logic, but neither " Index" nor any of his supporters would ever come forward on the public platform and treat community to a little " calm At Sydenham, despite repeated challenge."', no one would even summon up courage to ask a question, let alone come up on the platform to speak in the Moderate interest. He challenged anybody in the meeting before turn to step on the platform aud address them in the Moderate cause. It was only those who were financially interested in retaining the liquor traffic who were spending their money and using their influence against Prohibition. Apart from this there were not a handful of disinterested men who would tight for the liquor traffic. Its devotees were simply lining their own pockets at the expense of the degradation and poverty of the working man. If they turned the publican out the poor fellow would starve, they were told. Starve in a country like this: If they were not paying him 100 or 130 per cent, on his capital they were robbing him. He had no sympathy for the man who was fattening on the weakness of his fellow-iuen. Up in Wellington he knew of a case of a an habitual drunkard, who came home drunk one night and was met at the door by his wife with the baby in her arms. The wife said something that annoyed him. and he raised his fist" to strike her. but. missing her, struck the baby upon its head. For three days and nights the poor woman and her neighbors hung round the child trying to still its wailing in vain. There was little doubt that if that child lived it would be subject all its life to epileptic fits. His sympathy was with that woman and that child. There was another case of a man at Masterton who was away working on a contract, and who drank almost all his wages, leaving his wife to struggle along as best she could. By dint of h rd scraping the poor woman got together 2T& to meet the rent, which

had fallen due, and expecting her husband home, she hid it in an old sugar basin and covered it over with a saucer. The man came home from his work with a cheque for X>l3 10s in his pocket and went out to an hotel, and before night he had spent or lost every penny of his money. He came home drunk and asked his wife for money. She said she had none to give him, and when his search successfully disclosed the hidden 275, despite the despairing protest, "For God's sake don t take that, or the landlord will turn us out, and the children have no home over their heads," he proceeded once more to the hotel and spent the money. He came back late at night, drunk, and beat his wife, and turned her out in her night-gown. She walked up and down in the verandah, shivering with cold, until the early morning, when she crept in and found him in a drunken slumber, with a bottle of brandy in his pocket. She took the brandy to the publican, and implored him not to trust her husband for drink : and what was his answer ? He told the woman '" to cfo to hell, and mind her own business; he'd mind his." His sympathy was with that woman, not with the thing tha* called itself a man. People said these were extreme cases; but there were plenty of such cases. He would quote just one more. He knew of two people, man and wife, whose child died of fever. The couple were so poor that a shroud and coflin for the dead child were provided by a charitable sulwcription. The child was wrapped in the shroud and put in the coffin, and left for a while. \Y lien the undertaker came to screw down the coffin, lie found it already screwed down. His suspicions being aroused, lie took off the lid, and found" that the dead child had been robbed of the sliroud, and it was afterwards discovered that it had been pawned, and that the parents were, at the time, away drinking the proceeds. And this had happened in our own fair New Zealand. Thank God, that, at any rate, was an extreme c:ise. And all this dire and widespread misery and poverty was caused by the liquor traffic. It was said that they should try and regulate it. How were they to regulate it'? Other countries had tried to regulate it. and failed lamentably. The Moderate party said that they must put down sly grogselling and Sunday trading. Why had not the Moderate party done it? It was due to their helplessness and inactivity that the evils existed. It was impossible to regulate the traffic as it now existed, simply because the police absolutely dare not proceed against the publicans for violations of the liquor law. He had been one of a deputation at Wellington who had complained of violation of the law, and the Inspector of Police had come to him, almost crying, and said he could not proceed against the publicans. It was as much as his place was worth, on account of the very strong inlluence that would be brought to bear against him. He instanced the case of Inspector Partly, of New Plymouth, who was appointed to Dunedin. The Dunedin publicans, on learning that he was opposed to the liquor traffic, by dint of wire pulling. <:ot the appointment rescinded. It was no good abusing the police for not putting the Act in operation. They were not rewarded for their zeal, but punished and disrated for doing thou- duty. He instanced several cases of policemen being reprimanded from the Bench for excessive zeal, in support of liis statement. There was a power working behind the scenes, and the only way to deal effectively with the liquor traffic was by sweeping it absolutely'and altogether out of existence. -■ Index," in his letter, argued that Prohibition would mean a loss of revenue to the town. Any man who had studied economics would know that every pound realised in the liquor traffic cost the public 30s. If any man believed the liquor traffic to De the terrible evil it was, and yet voted for it on account of the revenue derived from it, that man was on the same level as the man who was prepared to live upon his daughter's shame. He was not expounding a creed. No man had anything God-like about him who did not full/ recognise the common brotherhood of humanity. The man who sacrificed his principles to revenue was not worthy of the name of man. The statement was at best a mere unsupported assertion. Unsupported statement w;is about the strongest point of the Moderate party? and they used it instead of conitng to the front to meet the Prohibitionists with "calm logic." Governor Humphrey, of lowa, who had been converted to "Prohibition principles, on seeing its effects. said that since the introduc tiou of Prohibition into the State of lowa, taxation had decreased from 1 dollar 75 cents per head to 71 cents per head, in 8i years: it had attracted to the State :jf»5.000 artizans, and members of the small capitalist class ; and had increased the value of real estate by 20,000,000 dollars. The sapient men of Oamaru, who were interested in the liquor traffic, said there would be a terrible state of thintrs if the public houses were shut. Sly-grog selling would increase, and consequently crime would also increase. Governor Humphrey states that in one town in lown. of 50,000 population, the people received (5 quarterly visits from the Judges and only three crimes appeared on the list for trial during that time. If that was the result of sly grog-selling, by all means let us go in for it. The liquor traffic was the source of every evil a man could imagine, and even Judge Denniston had said that it was "a social cancer," and if the only argument they could bring to bear against it was sly grogselling, and sly grocs-selling had the same'effect as above, by all means lianish the public house and let us have sly gnx; selling. Whatever creed a man possessed, he was but a poor specimen of humanity if he had not some enthusiasm for his fellow creatures. He had not the certainty of heaven which some men had. but he had never heard any man on his death-bed hope for increased happiness in Heaven by the establishment of a public house there. To fit people for Heaven, they must make earth as like it as possible, first. W hen they were lighting the City West election I three prominent clergymen had voted against them. He had run up against a 1 Hibernian publican, and in the course of conversation asked him what his party thought of the clergymen who voted for them, and this was what he got for an answer, "Faith and it's damned little. None knew the evils of the drink traffic better than those who stood behind the bars, and, though stirred into bitter? ness and inhumanity by their financial interests, they still had more respect for the minister who opposed them than they had for the man who refused his position and did not do his utmost to free the people from their bondage. People were continually longing for the opportunity of doing something good and glorious. They would take up " Uucle Tom's Cabin " and read of the horrors of slavery, of the gentleness of little Eva, the patience of old Uncle Tom. and t he brutality of Legrce. and then they would clench their fists* aud their blood would l>oil. and they would say, " My voice shall be heard and my hand uplifted for the poor slave." How readily their souls took up the pious raptures. It was wonderfully easy for a man to go into mock heroics over dead giants who had been ages buried, and yet be as blind as a bat to the duty which lay nearest to his band. If you take war. famine, and |>estilence, they are not / equal in their combined horrors to the evils caused by the liquor traffic. It was the women and the children who had to bear the sorrow and the suffering and the shame. He had seen a child in Wellington gnawing a tallow candle through sheer hunger, while its parents were away drinking. Regulation would never meet the evil. They must turn off the tap, and not try to bale the trough empty as the

liquor ran in. If, as according to Judge Denniston, they could not turn it right off, they must turn it off as far as possible, pending legislation giving them full power. If they only closed a certain number of houses, the Moderates would vote for them, for that was the Moderates' policy. They must go on with renewed vigor, confidence, and strength, and they would find it a joy, a privilege, and a duty to thin out these centres of temptation, and Oamaru would be reformed, so far as the liquor traffic was concerned. The Rev. Mr Todd proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Isitt for his very able address. He gave his opinion that the decision of Judge Denniston was in every way an able and a right one, in accordance with the provisions of the present Licensing Act. They must be content with half a loaf, and close as many of the public-houses as they were permitted to. He hoped on Tuesday that all who had a vote would use it in the Prohibition interest, and also try to get somebody else to accompany them to the poll and vote similarly. The Rev. Mr Dewsbury seconded the motion ; and pointed out that so far the Moderates had advanced no platform, and that, therefore, in view of Judge Denniston's decision, the Prohibition Committee was the one to vote for. The inference to be drawn from the Moderates' reticence was that, if they got in, things were to go on as before. He trusted all would vote for the Committee which had the courage of its opinions. Mr Geo. Jones, sen., in putting the motion, said he had lived long enough to see many threat reforms. He had seen the Reform Bill passed, the slave trade abolished, and the emancipation of the Roman Catholic Church, and he felt con fident that the death knell of the liquor traffic had now been sounded. He hoped they would display their firmness, resolution, and diligence in the cause, and they would feel that the whole community would benefit by their action. Their actions would, like the noble actions of others, live when they had passed away, and they would have the satisfaction of knowing that each and all had done his or her duty as a citizen of the community. The Rev. Mr Isitt, in acknowledging the vote of thanks, said he did not wish anybody to go away with the opinion that he did not think Judge Denniston's decision fair. He (the speaker) thought it very fair indeed, and New Zealand was fortunate in having such men as Judge Denniston to preside over her courts. The righteousness and nobility of their cause did not depend on any man or woman. It was inherently right; and when they saw the misery and evil caused by the drink traffic, no right-thinking man could refuse his assistance. They would feel better satisfied, when the end of life came, if they had played their part properly in the great reform, and had asserted their principles. If they played the man and played the woman he knew which side would come out uppermost. A vote of thanks to the chair closed the meeting,