THE NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2371, 10 August 1899, Page 27

THE NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN.

THE REV. L. M. PITT'S MISSION. The second of the aeries of "no- license" meetings in connection with* the R«t. L. M. Isitt's visit to Dunedin was held in the. Garrison Hall 'on the Ist'. Mr Isitt, who was received with applause, said if prohibition meant the advooacy of prohibition as c remedy for every evil on the face of the «arth he would laugh at prohibition as an absurdity. If prohibition meant the advocacy of prohibition as a substitute for the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, which, alone could avail to the snapping of the fetters of evil, and the freeing men and women from the power of ill, he would be a bitter opponent of prohibition. He spoke for himself and for the rank and file of the Prohibition party when he said that co far as Imperial prohibition was concerned, it had its bitterest opponents in the rank and file of the Prohibition party. They had always declared that they would never support x any measure of Imperial prohibition ; they Nvould never put it into the power of so many members of Parliament to foroe upon an unwilling people the prohibition of the liquor traffic. They had always eaid that while they admired immensely the energy and enthusiasm shown by the Prohibition party in America, they were at is3ue with them in this one point : that they were determined never to ask for any measure of temperance that would not remain' an absolute dead letter until the educated voice of the people vitalised it. They had always used the word , prohibition, but they meant local option. As for himself, he was forced into the position of b&ng a prohibitionist by the fact that for centuries the liquor traffic had defied regulation, and tlwtt it was opposed to the progress of this young nation. Going on to speak of true temperance, Mr Isitt said-true temperance, so far as the use of articles of diet and drink were concerned, meant the temperate use of everything that was beneficial and the total abstinence from everything that was injurious. — (Applause.) He then quoted from a number of medical authorities to show that alcohol was injurious. Fifty yeaTs ago the whole medical faculty believed thoroughty in alcohol a« a beverage, but now the faculty . had swung right over to the other side, and held that men were better without it than with it. There was not a medical man in Dvmediu who had brains and had a character vo maintain but what would hold that whatever value alcohol had as a medicine, the benefit would Ie immensely increased to the man who never touched it as a beverage. The teetotal fanatics i had educated the doctors on this question, inasmuch as they had caused the doctors to investigate it. So far as the medical world .was oonoerned, the evidence was in favour of the view held by the Temperance party that alcohol as a beverage was a mistake ; and one could not get away from the position that true temperance meant abstinence from that which was injurious. "We. ought to consider this question with reference to its influence upon other people. A great many people were afraid of interfering with the liberty of the subject; and in the name of liberty they were perpetuating at Home a system like that they were perpetuating here — a .system which encouraged licenses, and Which meant a most cruel and fo*il wrong to those little ones that Christ loved upon earth. If there was any- | thing that should lead men to give up alcohol as a beverage, it was the claim that the children had upon them. But there were scores of men and women who were blind to the evil that alcohol did to otheas, and would not give up its use as a beverage in order to stop the hurt and injury to others. In concluding, Mr Isitt warmly appealed to all present to vote "no license" at the next local option I poll.

The Rev. L. M. Isitt delivered his third address at the Garrison Hall o^i the 2nd, and the concluding lecture on the 3rd. The Rev. L. M. 'Isitt was greeted with great applause. He said that he was often asked if he never got tired of talking on the subject of the drink question. He should think not. He asked who could get tired of a work co magnificent as temperance reform. Its merit was that it was so intensely practical, and they did not have to wait till they goh to heayen for their reward. If they got a man to sign the pledge, in a very short time he gave witness of improvement. Prohibitionists were charged with being emotional. He asked if those present knew anyone who was worth an ounce who was not emotional. A man was not a man, and a woman was not a true woman who did not feel an intense pity and desire to do something to lessen the evil of intemperance. They claimed that the plutfovm occupied by prohibitionists was an educated platform. They believed they stood where they did because they had a really scientific and thorough grip of the alcohol que&tion. This should make them very patient with people who did not hold that grip. The popular superstition was that they were prohibitionists because they could not help themselves. In order to convert the man who needed conversion, and who wantedto believe that he (Mr Isitt) was an enthusiastic prohibitionist because he was born so, he went on to relate how, about 25 years ago, he, in company with his brother, met Dr Roseby in Princes street, and they had a little chat- together. Dr Roseby coon took his leave to attend a temperance meeting, and when out of hearing, he (Mr Isitt) said to his brother how extraordinary it was that a man of the culture and scholarly attainments of Dr Roseby should become a temperance crank. Mr Isitt went on to relate that as a child he was accustomed to be given sherry after dinner to soak his walnuts in, and he had no doubt that his mother wished she could give him good port wine every day. Passing on to the time of hie taking up his ministry, Mr Isitt stated that when at Lawrence he found the place full of drink. Doctors, lawyers,rnerchante, miuers, and everybody seemed to drink, and he soon learned that it did not matter whether they were earning much or little, they seemed to be trying how quickly they could kill themselves with drink. At Waipori, which was frequently visited by him, he believed tho population was about 200 souls, and for the spirituous delectation of the people in Waipori there were jio less than five or six publichousee, one ljottle license, and a sly grog shop kept by a notedswoman, who was reputed to sell more liquor than any of the "pubs." The speaker told a harrowing story about the death of a man at Waipori, from delirium tremens, and of an orgy tha.t took place at the funeral, and sajd that from that hour he developed enthusiasm in the cause which had gone on increa-sing, and he hoped it would go on as long as God gave him strength to carry on the work. He next learned moral suasion, and he began to plead with people to sign the pledge. He had not yet dreamt of legislative interference. Afterward* he was sent to New Plymouth, and there found that drinking was rife not only among white men. but among th© Maoris. He saw unfortunate Natives, men and women, carried out brute beasts, absolutely and helplessly drunk, from publichouses and taken to their pas. It was manifest that drink wae destroying the race rADidly,. Jjuat before he went to Eng-

land, two years ago, they had a temperance meeting at Christohurch, and a young Maori lad, who was being trained for the ministry, told a story to make Europeans blush. It was to the effect that -when Rewi Maniapolo, one of the great Maori chiefs who really was liever conquered, wae dying, he sent a message to Lord Glasgow, a newly-arrived Governor, that his last words were, " Save my people from the drink." Were they doing it? At the present time there were members of the House ol Representatives who were so absolutely lost to every sense of decency .that they were prepared to play the game of the brewer, and force on the outskirts of the King Country a grog shop. Mr Isitt said that he went from New Plymouth to Auckland, and went on to relate the effects of drink among the timber men in Dargarville. After that he was transferred to Masterton, and 4ie did not think there was another place in New Zealand that was more cursed By drink than Masterton. When he came to Wellington it was his privilege to come into contact with William Fox — (applause), — who told him that he had no real grip of the question, and that the evil was not in the men who ran the trade — it was in the liquor itself, as long as it contained the irritant poison, alcohol. Their chairman had spoken of the failure of prohibition in Mildura. Let them clearly recognise that the success or non-success of -prohibition in Mildura was not a test of whether no license by local' option was a success or not. In Mildura a»clause in the constitution of the settlement prevented any person holding a license. It was a wine-growing district, and the people made and con sumed drink, yet they could not obtain a licence to sell it legally. This was a vastly different thing from the educated choice of no license by a three-fifths majority of the people of New Zealand, and prohibitionists had never worked for any measure of prohibition that was not the voice and choice of the people. They were sometimes told that the men who fell victims to drink were only wastrals and ne'er-do-weels. He challenged contradiction when he said that some of the most generous, cultivated, and > most nobleminded men that had trod the streets of Dunedin were numbered amongst ita victims. Mr Tsitt quoted the testimony 4 of Dr Shaw M'Lartn that alcohol was an irritant poison, that lacked some of the^compensating good qualities of stryohnine and arsenic. He did not hesitate to say that alcohol as a beverage in any form was a scientific error, and this view Avas confirmed by Dr Sims Woodhead, who, sinpe Richardson's death, was the greatest living expert on the question. He had heard the chairman refer to good men in the drink trade. That might be so ; but they were in it mighty bad traffic, and if they wanted to keep good they had better' get out of it. If the Apostle Paul came down and tried to run a Dunedin liquor bar he could not do it for two days without great deterioration of liis conscience. In conclusion, Mr Isitt earnestly exhorted his hearers to cast their vote for Christ and humanity, and let those who called themselves His, .vote in the direction which would do much to make earth more like the heaven we lived and hoped for. The address was one of the most effective of the series delivered by Mr Isitt, and he was loudly applauded throughout its course by an attentive and sympathetic audience. The Rev. W. Sinclair closed the meeting with the benediction. ' '