Temperance Mission.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 65, 15 February 1895, Page 3

Temperance Mission.

REV L. M. ISITT AT WANGANUI. In coming to his subject Mr Isitt said that the evil of the liquor traffic was a pretty ancient evil and a pretty big evil. During the last 150 years over six hundred laws for its regulation had been introduced, but with what result ? The magnitude of the evil was as great as ever. He said it could not be denied that drink impaired the health, destroyed life, aud was responsible for untold scenes of degradation. It was not neces.-ary to go to the slums of London for evidence of that. It had been said that New Zealand was one of the soberest countries in the world where liquor was sold, and yet the newspapers throughout the colony for 1894 chronicled a drink tragedy for every other day in the year, and if they took 1895 to the present time a drink tragedy was recorded nearly every day. And, said the speaker, do you think that the chronicled instances represent all the baneful results. He would rather believe that there were twice as many cases unrecorded. What was the remedy and with whom did it rest ? The people must regulate the traffic. The trade existed for the convenience of the people and it was only just they should regulate it. He admitted there were decent publicans, but conteuded that the business was an indecent business. Mr Isitt recited a poem by Mr Thomas Bracken, erstwhile secretary of the Licensed Victuallers' Association on " The Vilest Fiend of All," and concluded an eloquent and logical address by appealing to the people to assist in a true Liberal measure—viz., to permit the people to vote whether there should be licenses or not. — Herald.