PROHIBITION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10598, 16 September 1896, Page 4

PROHIBITION.

A meeting was held in the Tabernacle, Great King street, last night, when Mr Watt, evangelist, gave an address reviewing the address of Mr J. D. Sievwright on "The Fallacies of Prohibition." Mr A. S. Adam s presided, and there was a good attendance, the Eev. Messrs Hinton and Ready occupying seats on the platform.

Mr Watt said in these days of advanced education, enlightened institutions, and boasted freedom it seemed to him in the highest degree absurd that any individual conld be foolhardy enongh to champion me most abject form "of slavery with which the world was acquainted. We had in our midst a young man—indeed, a very young man—who on Wednesday evening i»s6 stood up before » Dunedin audience in defence of liberty, and to speak of the "fallacies of prohibition." He listened to that lecture almost to the close, and he mast confess that there was absolutely nothing in it calling foe reply. He vhought those present •would agree with him that that was simply a i;rue statement of fact. However, as the question that Mr Sievwright attempted to deal wish was, par excellence, the question of the moment, he proposed to 6ay something with regard to it. _ He' was a little suspicious that then- yooijg vristid did not pose as the ohsn«ipion of liberty, but as the champion of liceiiotv Ha noticed at the lecture tome of the mojw prominent gentlemen immediately connected with the "whisky interests " in this city ; and he found that they were the moving (tpirits of the whole agitation. He therefore concluded that his suspicion was based upen some solid ground. He entirely endorsed the definition of libsrty advertised by the Liberty League, and he endorsed it in fbi 3 way : The man who kept a giu p*laen or a bei>r shop and sold bter to his neighbour hopelessly iufringad the liberty of hundreds and thousands, and therefore Herbert Spencer's definition of liberty ought never to h=ve found a place in the programme of the league. He thought that he could give a better definition of liberty thsn Spencer, and would put it thia way: that every man; may claim the liberty to do that which is right, but not to do that wliich is wrong. — (Jlear, hear.) It was said that the league was composed of men and women who were prepared to nso every constitutional moans to uphold and proteot the liberty of the subject But was that so ? Io bis humble judgment the most C3Ustitutional means that lay at their hands at the present time were to refer all grest public questions to the people ; but ibe Liberty League was in mortal terror of appealing to the people on this liquor question.—(Applause) Mr Sievwright evidently did not know what the prohibitionists wanted. Now, what they aimed at was this: They believed t.hat liquor-selling w&8 inimical to the beat interests of the community, and, therefore, they claimed that it was equitable, righteous, and just that the people themselves should decide what should be done with the trada. Mr Sievwright said in New Zealand insanity increased as druckannejs decreased. The Earl of ghaftesbary, who was connected with the Luoacy Commission for 50 years, however, stated that in his opinion intemperance was the cause of two-thirds of the insanity that prevailed. Dr Mann, in his "Manual of Psychological Medicine," also said it was impossible to estimate the complex influences that intemperance exercised on the production of insanity, but all observers agreed that it was intimately connected with and one of the most prolific causes of insanity. Proceeding to refer to Mr Sievwright's statement with reference to the effect of prohibition in the State of Maine, Mr Watt read a letter, which he said was written by General Nesl Dow on December 31, 1895, and which spoke of the beneficial effects of prohibition in that State. He then went on to allude to what Mr Sievwright said with regard to the relation between crime and druukenntw, and quoted the opinion of an inspector o£ p"Hu« in the colony, who said that more than half th« crimes were attributable to liquor. He also quoted in the same connection the opinion of an ex-magistrate, who B»id -that three-fourths of the, crime, iua»cy, and pauperism which existed had their origin iv intoxicating drink. In concluding he urged that the people ihould vote for prohibition, bemiue the liquor trade was ruinously injurious to the people: because to legislate for the control of a known evil was immoral *• and because the social problem would never be solved until we had prohibition. He also stid that Mr Sievwright in referring to the bearing of Scripture on this question forgot to tell his audience th«t when tha New Testament was written there were no" a-dent opirits, aud that drunkenness wa« very t«rn. Pure spirit was not discovered until the ' hirteeoth century, and in the natural fermenfetion of the grape there was not more thin 10 ptr cent, of alcohol. If, however, the New Testament were written with such a state of things existing m we had to-day, in hi» humble judgment every page of it would bristle with declarations that intoxicating drink essto to be swept eatirelt •ns.v> ! j[AßEluUßi) r ,

At the conclusion-cf his address Mr W«tfr*M accorded & hearty voie of thanks, as also wtje the_ officers of ths cii'irch for the nseofitho building.