NO-LICENSE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143625, 19 October 1911, Page 6

NO-LICENSE.

ADDRESS BY MRS. BARTON. Many good lectures in tho no-licenso cause have been heard in New Plymouth, but of them none has shown ability to grip an audience in greater degree than Mrs. Helen Barton, of Glasgow, who delivered a very fine address on Wednesday night m the Theatre Royal. A fluent speaker, with her speech coloured with a tinge of the homely Scots, and with a real gift of oratory, she combines with these qualities the power of carrying her audience with her. But she is also essentially logical in her arguments, and she has a rare fund of humour. Amusing anecdotes and apposite illustration are frequently introduced, and Mrs. Barton s ninny good stories are well worth going a long way to hear. Au 3 the quickness of her woman’s wit enables her to seize many points that other lecturers miss. In debate she can use the rapier with adroitness and as much effect as the bludgeon. But the printed page cannot do justice to the quality of her addresses. There was a fair attendance at the Theatre. The chair was taken by the Mayor, .Mr. G. W. Browne, who briefly introduced Mrs. Barton. Opening with a remark about the weather conditions affecting the size of her audience, Mrs. Barton said she could not growl, because cold water drinkers must always be prepared for a drop of thair own beverage. It seemed to her, though, that New Zealanders were rather afraid of cold water. If they were afraid of water at Home they would never have a meeting in winter. Instead, they had gatherings of thousands even when torrential rain was falling. “The difference between the people at Horae a ml you,” she continued, “is that we re fighting for the bill, while you’re billed for the fight.” Some people had asked what business she had to come and dictate to the people of New Zealand; She was not here to dictate; she knew better. She only wished to show her way, and she thought it was the bettor way. If they didn’t like to take it, it was their own affair. She felt that she might be able to advise in the work of social reform, for she came, from a land where generation after generation had seen the vice and disease caused by the liquor traffic. Mrs, Barton explained that she came out to Australia for the rfike of her health, but she had been invited to part in the no-license work in New South Wales, and she had become so engrossed in it that she had readily accepted an invitation to come to New Zealand. Now she was waiting to sec what New Zealand could do, and then she would go hack to see what they could do at Home, Mrs, Barton then dealt with the condition of affairs in various electorates in New Zealand, which are already under no-liceuso. She had stayed in Oamaru for nine days, and she was convinced that no-license there was a decided success. There were no young men hanging round hotel bars, half intoxicated. Instead, the young men wore well set-up, well groomed, and looking just as they should. She had gone to the railway station for two hours at a time to see all those quantities of liquor that were alleged to bo brought to Oamaru by the late trains on Saturday night. But the men s pockets were as slack as her own, and the men were sober. A newsnaper reporter had told her that the court sittings were very short since no-license came into force, and the sergeant of police told her that all the sly-grog brought into Oamaru in a year would not be as much as one hotel’s Christmas trade under license. He further informed- her that this sly-grog was supplied to only about 400 people in the electorate, and always, apparently, to the same little few, Iho doctors told her there was no increase of drinking in the homes, and business had increased splendidly. She had als-o scon the Mataura electorate under splendid conditions. The conductor of the Besses o’ tIT Barn Band had asserted that “decent” accommodation couldn’t be got in no-license areas. But in Oamaru these were splendid hotels under no-license, and she had not seen outside of London any accommodation finer than that to be obtained at Gore. People must be very fastidious indeed if they wanted anything better than these places. And it was the same in BalcUitha. It was not a fair deal for anyone to go round the country and then go back Home and tell untruths. She thought she knew a good home as well as the Besses o’ th’ Barn Band conductor or any other man or woman. She had lived in different hotels in every country in Europe, as well as at Home, and she bad seen nothing better than the accommodation she had referred to. She was going Home to give an emphatic denial to the statements which had been made. She though she would see the Besses’ conductor himself. At Gore she had come across a man who admitted that drink had been ruining him and his business, but his wife worked hard, no-licenso was carried, and new he was doing well. A hotelkeeper’s wife came to this man the day after the poll and told him that this noliccnso was his wife’s work, and she withdrew her trade. The man 'had replied that the closing of the hotels had saved him from bankruptcy; that for every pound she spent in his shop she had got value, and that he had spent fifty in the hotel for every one ho received from it. As for what was to become of the hotelkeepers, no man who was willing to work need starve. The good of the people was the first consideration. She liked to see men rising above’ the grovelling things of self, going to higher ideals. Wo must raise the Nation as high as we could, or else wo would fail in our duties ns citizens. Mrs. Barton appealed for higher ideals of citizenship. The greatest good for the greatest number was what we should consider to-day. Dealing with Invercargill under 110license, Sirs. Barton sail! she wish'd she saw New Plymouth rid of its six or seven hotels and in such a prosperous condition as Invercargill. .The Trade issued circulars that no-licenso would increase local taxation. The Mayor of Invercargill, who was interested in hotel property, said its value had increased by a third since the carrying of 110-license, and he was prepared to give 1000 votes, if he had them, to Dominion prohibition. Another man who owned hotel property told her that his income from it under license was £l2 a week, but now, under no-license, it was £lB a week. Every tradesman was smiling and prosperous, and the streets were beautifully clean. As for the argument that the coming of no-license would be followed by sly grog-soiling, no one said that no-license would rid a man of the craving for liquor. When a fever-apreading sewer was closed up they removed the cause of the disease, but they did not stamp out at once the fever it had already caused. Of Course, a drunkard would crave for drink. But the drunkard was created by the open bar. The men who sold the sly grog were the real delin-

quents. The liquor trade talked about sly grog as il in would make people go back on Il was very ioolisn, absurd, and illogical. There was a law agaunsi stealing, but ii people had their houses burgica they did noi go buck on the law. il a man oroke the law against thelt and burglar}’, did Parliament take that law oit ;he btauUc Book ■ No, they punished the thieves us they caught them, and enforced the law. “Thou shall not kill” was trained m the law ot every nation; but there was murder in every country. Was the law repealed ? No. Such argument was absurd and illogical. Who supplied the sly grog? V hy, the brewers ol the land. Tne liquor trade was the greatest monopoly in this country. Airs. Barton tipoke 0/ the tyranny oi the big vested interests, and said that it was not the hotelkeepers who were putting up the tight against no-license. It was the big companies. Ninety out oi every hundred hotels were owned by these big vested interests, ‘i hese monopolists were very sympathetic now. They warned parents mat it no-license wore earned their boys would be dragged olf to the e.l y grog shop. But the sergeant of police at Oamaru had told her that the reason why no-lieense was going to be such a success was because it prevented fresh drunkards being made—there was no new’ crop ol young drunkards coming on. No eelf-respccting man would go to a sly grog shop. Another argument adduced was that it would be injurious to the health of men if their liquor were stopped. They had seen hard drinkers go to gaol, but the sobriety didn’t kill them. They were all the better for their enforced abstinence. Speaking ol the contempt of the trade for the law, and their own sly grog methods, Mrs. Barton referred to the abolition of the bottle licenses and the issue of a circular by a firm of vvine merchants informing people that they wore prepared to deliver two gallons ol acsorted liquor into the homes, and that their representative would call. That representative told the people that they could order the two gallons, get it when they liked and not necessarily all at /once, and not pay till they had got the 'whole order fulfilled. Wasn’t chat sly grog-selling and getting behind the law Y Either the liquor trade was right or it was wrong. It right, why all these restrictions? if wrong, why not wipe it right out? PROHIBITION WAS THE LOGICAL OUTCOME.

The speaker then dealt with Ashburton under no-license, and said it was a success from every standpoint. She had been told that no-licenso there had brought a crop of houses of iil-fnme, and she had been told that the.police would confirm this statement. The three policemen told her ‘ that when there was an open bar in Ashburton there were three houses of that description. Under no-licenso there was none. She described to the police tho man who told her tills untruth, and she found he was the paid agent ot the trade. The uo-license people were not allowed to tell lies, but tho other side could tell them by tho square yard it they liked. Mrs. barton quoted figures answering the statements that no-license would cause stagnation in the building trado and close tho saloyards. As for the tourist trade, it was a libel on tho tourists to say that they would not come here it New Zealand adopted no-iicense. They came to view our scenery, not to drink our beer. What benefit did wo obtain from the trado? Here in New Plymouth there were seven hotels to a population ot 5240 people in the borougn. Tho total revenue received from them was £439 18s. The Government year-book showed that New Zealand’s drink bill was slightly over £4 per head a year. In license areas it was £4 3s, and in no-licenso areas 16s 6d. Taking it_ at £4, the expenditure in drink in New Plymouth was £20,920 a year. And wo got back £439 18s. Where was tho good of that. 3 ’ It was diabolical, and yot the trade said tho abolition of licenses would increase local taxation. What did the worker got Irora tho liquor trade? Out oi every pound sterling rpent in drapery, apart from makingup, the worker got os (Id; in boom (exclusive ot tannery) 8s 6’d out ol every £1 went back to the workers; in tho agricultural industry, 12s iu every £t; in ironmongery, 9s (id in every ill; in coal, 12s (id iu every £1; and in liquor only Is (M in every £1 spent went back to the workers. But apart altogether from that loss of money, she grieved over tho loss of man, ot brain, and of fitness as a result oi the drink traffic. Tho statement that Dominion prohibition would throw men out ot employment was ridiculous. Last year wo spent £6,000,000 on drink, but only 9000 people were employed iu the trade. But it was not only loss of money that was to be considered. It was tho loss of the man. Sho saw nothing lor it but to got, rid of tho traffic altogether. Tho Gothenburg system had been tried, but it was just as big a nuisance as any other. Drink, even it sold by an arcuaugel, had a pernicious and degrading ellect. Sweden had tried the Gothenburg system, but at the last poll six people in every eight voted icr prohibition. The tide oi prohibition was coming, and they might just as well try to put back the ocean as to keep ic back. Mrs. Barton dealt sarcastically about the trade’s cry of "the liberty oi tho subject.” She pointed out that shopkeepers had to close their premises at 6 p.m.. and on one half-day in each week. The only people exempt were the hotelkeepers. Where was tho liberty of the subject? Yet the hotels made vastly greater profits than the shops. It was strange that there was a law for one trade and not for another. "But we’ll do better. VTo’ll give them a holiday off altogether.” As for the cry that the hotelkeepers would lose property, there were thousands ot people suffering from the effects of drink, and this movement was to stamp out a disease. Y’et if a cure for cancer or consumption were discovered, would anyone worry about the doctors’ practices? Then why worry about tho publicans?

The speaker added that she did not wish to touch ou general politics, hut she would urge her hearers to have no time for the man who would not give them the bare majority vote. ‘'The man whom you return to Parliament on a bare majority vote and then turns round and won’t give it to you—why, I’d take my foot to him—(Laughter.) It’s not democratic. It’s autocratic. I’d sot the women on to him.” —(Laughter.) JVlrs, Barton conclude dwith an impassioned appeal, ghe, was very heartily applauded. The usual votes of thanks concluded the meeting.