Temperance Convention

Southland Times, Issue 13280, 5 August 1895, Page 3

Temperance Convention

The annual convention of the Southland temperance organisations was opened on Saturday evening, when an open-air meeting was held opposite the post office. Some five or six hundred people listened to the addresses, and the speakers were frequently applauded. Prior to the speeches the Salvation Army Band contributed , appropriate music.

Mr E. Graham (Dunedin), who was the firat speaker, said that the work of temperance reform demanded that they should bo in earnest. The interest taken in this great question by the people was one of the signa of the times. It meant that the quickened intelligence of the people, awakened by the spread of education, was making itself felt in the movements of moral reformation. The work of temperance had the smile of heaven upon it; it was the cause of God and of righteousness. He was identified with the work because he felt that he waa thus linked with Omnipotence m the rescuing of humanity from a degrading and demoralising traffic. He had met all sorts and conditions of men with all aorta of opinions on the question and had received a great deal of advice from them gratia. A J.P. had told him that he would resist prohibition by force of arms. He asked the man for whom he was going to fight—for himself? “No,” he said, “I don’t care whether I get it or not.” Then he (the speaker) said: “Well you won’t fight for the total abstainers and if you, as a moderate, don’t care about it you have only the drunkards and publicans to fight for. I wish you joy of your company.” This fight waa for hearts and homes against a legalised monopoly of iniquity. Allegiance to Christ meant unceasing opposition to all the works of the devil and this traffic was pre-eminently a work of the devil. Mr Graham illustrated hia remarks by several anecdotes and concluded with an appeal to all to join the prohibition army. Mr T. E. Taylor, of Christchurch, was enthusiastically received. He said that from Invercargill to Auckland there was no question that would draw so large and intelligent audiences as the question of the right of the people to control the liquor traffic. Much evil had been done by shillyshallying with this question on the part of public men and he was glad to have an opportunity of expressing his admiration of Mr Kelly, M.H.R. for the stand he had taken in the House against despotism and in favour of the liberties of the people. It was high time that the power of thwarting the people’s will was taken from a nominated executive and placed in other hands. He dealt with the question of the threefifth majority and said that the effect of this proposal of Mr Seddon was to place a premium on the votes of the publicans, drunkards and loafers. By Mr Seddon’s proposals each one of these was given a greater voting power than the wisest and best men and women in the colony. The man who was directly interested in the traffic from lust for gold, the man who was being ruined body and soul by [drink, the woman who was an outcast from society, had each of them a vote and a bit against the single vote of the minister of the Gospel, the moral reformer and the pure and good women who alone built up the moral basis of society. The prohibition party intended to change all this. They were in for a fight and intended to start the approaching century with a clean sheet so far as the liquor traffic was concerned, and would at the election and the ballot take every means to attain that end.

Mr A. C. Broad, of Dunedin, said the strength of the prohibitionists was often under-estimated. Many now posed as moderates who, when before the ballot box, felt bound to vote for prohibition, and did so. There was work for all in this great movement, and the most humble could join heart and hand with those in the thick of the fight. Those who could do little should not be discouraged by the fact that they could not do great things. Do what you can and others will do the rest. The responsibility of the individual was greater now than ever. People were better educated than of old, and their eyes were open to the gross evils of this traffic, and all who knew were responsible before their Maker to use every effort to further the reform. The vote made the legislator, the legislator made the law, the law made the publican, and the publican made the drunkard. Who started the work ?—the voter, and he alone was responsible. He begged the men and women present to work with a will to push on prohibition so that they might realise Mr Taylor’s expectation of a free and sober colony in the year 1900. The Rev. W. Woollass and Mr A. S. Adams, of Dunedin, also spoke.

A public meeting was held yesterday evening in the theatre, when there was a satisfactorily large attendance. The Rev. W. Woollass presided, and there were also on the platform a number of ladies and gentlemen intimately associated with the temperance movement.

The meeting having opened with praise and prayer the Chairman delivered a brief address. He quoted from Isaiah to show that seven hundred years before Christ the curse of drink had existed and been denounced. In conclusion he said they knew the ruin and havoo strong drink was causing and they would be less than men if they did not fight it to the bitter end. Mr Frank Graham next addressed the meeting. He stated that although they often heard a whine coming from the midst of those interested in the liquor trade they could never get the gentlemen who complained against the work of the temperance party to come and meet them oh the platform. The temperance advocates were sometimes remonstrated with as to their positions, but he had never felt it to be necessary to apologise for taking the platform in connection with Gospel temperance, fie and others had been charged with rating temperance above Christianity. They never did so, but they believed that their Christianity, their allegiance to Christ, demanded, that the evils of strong drink should be strongly dealt with. The time had come when they would all have to take sides, and the question was: What was the right attitude lor them to taka up ’ The evil did

’ not take hold of ths poor and ignorant only, but also brought the best and brightest to ruin and degradation. Total abstinence was only the individual while prohibition was the political remedy. The present system of license was bad in principle ; they had no right to make legal what was morally wrong. The liquor trade could not be regulated ; it must be wholly destroyed. He argued that temptation should be removed from the paths of those who had fallen victims to the curse, and gave instances which had come under his personal attention of its terrible influences. He had nothing to say against individuals. There were good men in the trade, but they wished they were out of it; there were bad men in the trade and it was the duty of the people to kick them out of it. The time had passed for shilly-shallying with the evil, and those who had the temperance Cause at heart could not be expected to speak on the subject calmly or mildly. In conclusion he made a strong agpeal to all Christian men and women, to all who had the welfare of humanity at heart, to help in the work the temperance party were carrying on. Mr A. S. Adams said that the question was often asked—what was jthe relation of the prohibition of the liquor traffic to the Gospel? The answer would be found in replying to another question.—What is the Gospel ? At his mother’s knee he had first learned that beautiful prayer. “ Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and this contained the germ of the Gospel. Christ was manifested that He might bring about the destruction of the devil’s works and to enable men and women to do the will of God perfectly. God’s will was that the weak should be strengthened, the fallen uplifted, the falling helped, and the young innocent preserved from sin and degradation. The traffic in strong drink was the devil’s trap to lure

and destroy the weak and the young and it was doing the devil’s work. It was therefore clear that the relation of the Gospel to the liquor traffic was and must ever be one of open absolute unswerving hostility. There could be no compromise between good and evil, light and darkness, heaven and hell. The liquor traffic was a trade allied with all the forces of evil, and it was the duty of the Christian to oppose it in every way. The drunkard was the weak brother for whom Christ died and for whom they, if they would follow Christ, must be willing to give up their own enjoyment. For the sake of the weak, the fallen, the young and the innocent, he called upon all true men and women to join in the efforts for the final overthrow of the trade.