Mrs Harrison Lee.

Opunake Times, Volume XXII, Issue 773, 15 September 1905, Page 3

Mrs Harrison Lee.

At the Town Hall, last evenin'?, there was a very good attendance of the public to hear the no-license lady lecturer, Mrs Harrison Lee. Aft -r a hymn had been sung, the Rev. J. W. Worbuys offered up a prayer and Miss Taia, Strack sung a solo very sweetly and the chairman of the Town Board, Mr Dudley, briefly introduced the visitor, and after acknowledging the compliment, Mrs Harrison Lee commenced in a very assured tone that no-license would be carried at the next poll and then put her hearers in a good mood by relating that at one o f Father Hayes’ meeting a question was asked him by one of the audience *• Suppose no-license was carried and all the brewers and hotelkeepers were thrown out of work, what would become of them ?” A farmer immediately answered the question by saying he had five miles ofgorse that wanted cutting,and they could commence it at once. So you see. said the speaker, instead of selling bad beer they could

be making good butter. Mrs Harrison Lee treated the subject of noliceuse from a social, commercial and national aspect. When she was in the Homeland Earl Grey and Sir John Gorat had written to the papers, the former had startled the thinking people by showing, during the time i of the Boer war, in one division alone in Manchester, out of 11,000 recruits offered for the army, 7,000 had to be refused by the medical authorities

owing to physical infirmities brought about by alcoholism. These facts were not brought out by temperance advocates but by the great thinkers. A huge petition, signed by 14,700

medical men was the means of hav-

ing an English Royal Commission set up to inquire into the cause of the degeneracy of the young manhood

of England, and no matter what were the private opinions of .the experts, their evidence was unanimous on one point—that the main cause of the physical dwarfness of

the race was due to the ill effects of alcohol. From a commercial point of view the lady took her facts and

incidents from N.Z. experience. In Clutha we were told that land had doubled in price, and was spoken of by commercial men as the soundest place in the colohy. In Ashburton, the three-storey hotel had been turned

into offices, and a coffee palace, and every office let at a good rental. All the hotels in the no-lioense districts were still tenanted, the only difference being that the bar room had been turned into a living room. The Mayor of Christchurch, who had presided at her meeting there, and bad been for 21 years a publican and bad voted for continuance declared himself to be a convert to no-license as Ashburton was a better place under the present system. She drew a pathetic picture of Invercargill and Port Chalmers under no-license and its reversion to continuance. In Invercargill the business people were openly financing the league. In Masterton one gentleman had told her that ha was one of 12 prepared to guarantee to the local authorities any loss

of revenue incurred through the carrying of no-license at the polls and her - friend reasoned it out thuswise; There were six hotels in Masterton

: paying an aggregate sum of £240 in 1 license fees; that £8 10s lOd was the drink bill per head per annum of the colony, and assuming that Masterton was a little more sober than other towns and knocked off the 10s lOd, leaving it £8 per head for Masterton population of about 4,000, -equal to £12,000, which was sent out of the town and partly out of the colony. Now to prevent this leakage of £12,000 these Masterton people were prepared to guarantee the £240 direct taxation. Whilst not giving credit to the no-licence cause for all the prosperity in the no-licene districts they could now speak with no un- • certain mind that these places are better in every way than under continuance and the predicted stagnation of trade never eventuated. These facts she said could be found out by the audience for themselves. The lady brought her oration to a close by the welhknown illustration taken from Abe Lincoln’s impulsive excla'mation that if ever he got a chance to hit the slave trade, by the power of God, be would hit it hard. The lady was frequently applauded. ■ Miss Strack (of Hawera) sang the no-license “ battle ” song “ Strike out the top-line,” and was heartily applauded. In reply to the chairman, the only question was asked by Mr Tanner: Did the speaker think, if prohibition was carried, and the mechanic made clearer in intellect, that it would have a tendency to lower workers’ wages. Mrs Harrison Lee quoted Edison as saying that he had better use for his brain than spoil it with alcohol. Miss Hickman kindly played the accompaniments and the pronouncement of the Benediction brought the meeting to a close.