OTAGO UNITED TEMPERANCE COUNCIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3833, 30 August 1927, Page 53

OTAGO UNITED TEMPERANCE COUNCIL.

At the annual meeting of the Otago United Temperance Reform Council the fidlowing resolutions, as the expression of the New Zealand Alliance Executive were unanimously’ supported and adopted : (1) That it is neither right nor politic for the State to afford legal protection and sanction to any traffic or system that tends to increase crime, to waste the national resources, to corrupt the social habits, and to destroy the health and lives of the people. (2) That no consideration of private gain or public revenue can justify the legislative protection of a system so utterly wrong in principle, suicidal in policy, and disastrous in results as the traffic in intoxicating liquor. (3) That the traffic in intoxicating liquors as common beverage., is inimical to the true interests of individuals and destructive to the order and welfare of society, and ought, therefore, to be subjected to the unfettered judgment of the community.

(4) That the history and results of all past legislation in regard to the liquor traffic abundantly prove that it is impossible for the Legislature satisfactorily to limit or regulate a system so essentially mischievous iu its tendencies, and the Legislature ought therefore to remove all discredited and obstructive barriers to a clear expression o'f the people’s will. (5) That rising above class, sectarian or party considerations all good citizens should combine in a demand that there be removed all legislative protection of the liquor traffic against the judgment of the community.

(G) That the Otago Area Council, in view of the latest scientific teaching as to the irresponsibility caused by even the “moderate” use of alcohol, the evidence steadily accumulating as to the loss of life and property due to alcoholic indulgence, respectfully urges upon the Government the necessity for such alteration in the law as will throw upon any person charged in respect of any motor accident, and who shows any signs of having taken liquor, the onus of proving that such accident was not caused thereby*.