GENERAL BOOTH

Temuka Leader, Issue 2882, 17 October 1895, Page 2

GENERAL BOOTH

General Booth passed through Temuka by express train yesterday, accompanied by several officers and a large contingent of soldiers. He behaved very badly to the people of Temuka. A large number of people assembled at the railway station, hoping to see him, but the windows of his carriage were closed, and ho did not show himself at all. Last time he passed through he opened the window just as the train was moving away, and smiled out on the people serenely and sweetly, but on this occasion he did not eveu do this, and those who hoped to see him were disappointed. On arriving in Timaru he was received by the Rev. Mr Gillies, whose guest he will be while in that town, A carriage and pair was in waiting, and into this he went, accompanied by some of his officers. He was followed into it by Mr Blackwood (president of the Prohibition League), who read and presented him with a strongly-worded address on the temperance question. To this the General made a reply, aud spoke for about ten minutes. He favoured prohibition, he said, not only of drink, but of vice and crime, and poverty and misery, and to this his life had been consecrated. The Salvation Army officers were all prohibitionists. They prohibited themselves from taking drink, and no one was allowed to wear the uniform of the Army if he was not a prohibitionist. If the other Church organisations acted similarly they would soon have Prohibition of the right sort, for if they had Prohibition in the Churches, they would soon have it iu the State. Several volleys were fired as the carriage drove away. The General is getting old, being now in his C6th year. He does not appear as if he had ever been a strong mau, but now, though lithe aud active, he looks frail, and his voice is slightly cracked. He wore a soldier’s uniform, and a “ belltopper,” but all the officers wore caps. He addressed an immense meeting in Timaru last evening.