STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16218, 24 August 1918, Page 4

STRATFORD.

FROM OUR RESIDENT AGENT. August 22.—/Thr campaign for the abolition of alcoholic beverages made a good beginning at the Town Hall last evening, when the Canadian delegate, Mr W. D. Bay ley, gave an address. The Rev. C. B. Howard, Church of England, presided and explained that the fight was to bo in two stages. The first objective was to obtain from Parliament a straight-out national poll for and against immediate prohibition with compensation. Having obtained the right to vote, the next thing would be to" 3 organise victory at the poll. Mrs. Don, of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, - had the stage for a short address, in the course of which she explained why the principle of compensatioß had boon, admitted, it having been thought better to spend four and a half millions for immediate prohibition than to wait four and a half years for prohibition without compensation. The star speaker followed, and was listened to with rapt attention by the large audience, which included many who are known to he decidedly anti-prohibition. If these ‘.‘came to scoff” they found it impossible, though they may not have “remained to pray.” I should not bo surprised if many were converted, for both the matter and manner of the address were such as compel attention. He did not weary with figures nor exhaust himself and his sndlence with declamation, but in a quiet clpatty style, and with irresistible logic, drove home his points. One cannot help thinking that the advice he gave “the trade”—to get out whilst the going is good—is very sound . I happen to know that the same view is held in quarters not inimical to the social glass. It is not to every visitor from overseas that Mt. Egmont reveals himself in such resplendent guise as Mr. W. D. Barley has caught him in. More often than not he is retired within his cloud sanctum. Mr. Baylcy said last night that not even in the famed Rockies had he iseen so magnificent a mountain peak. The Copper Trail organisation is getting into shape, and there is no doubt that the district will give a good account of itself by the appointed day. The only danger is from the big headlines in the papers. Simple folks maygather from such phrases as “sweeping hark the Huns,” “Germans admit defeat,” etc., that the work of the Red Cross is practically over and that we can keep our money for peace celebrations. Would that it were so!