NO-LICENSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9316, 17 August 1908, Page 1

NO-LICENSE.

SUNDAY CAMPAIGN COMMENCED

MEETING IN THE OPERA HOUSE.

A number of No-license speeches were delivered in the Opera House Last evening, before a very large audience, at a meeting arranged by the Christchureh Prohibition League. Mr C. E. Salter presided, and ' at" tor the meeting had been opened, with a hymn and prayer, he announced that tho Prohibition League had arranged to hold fortnightly meetings at the Opera House, commencing that night. The Rev W. Ready, the first speaker, said that he was opposed to a publican having any more political power at the polling-booth than himself. Such a policy could never stand before the searching ga&e of the Man of Sorrows, who had taught them that a man should not be backed up by any Government to do evil with .all his power. He had recently met a. man who had decided to "chuck out" the drink, and while congratulating him on his true philosophy had promised that there- would be a lot of "chucking out of beer " at the next election. He was very thankful that the Trades and Labour Council by its resolution had realised at lust that drink was o. millstone on the national powers of tho people. Drinking was the mother, not only ol poverty, but of crime, and its opponents were determined to wipe it out. He had been told that people could not be made good by Act of irarliament, but he was working to abolish a law that made people bad by Act of Parliament.

Mr J. McCombs, referring to figures given in the Police Report, showing an mcreaeo of drunkenness, said that although the increase was not satisfactory, it could not be laid at tho door of prohibition. The arrests totalled a little oy&r ten per thousand of thg population of the dominion, collating men, women and children, but the perceaiv T e in the six no-license electorates, vfttw it making any allowance for driafrjis who came into them from outside, was vastly snialleiv In Aehburton the arrests were a little under two per thousand, in Mataura considerably less than t*vo per thousand, in Oamaru onethird per thousand, and in Clutha .51 per thousand. This was a very good reason for demanding the national option. The editor 'o£ the " LjT&elioii Times" had said that it was premature for the prohibitionists to claim that they had found an infallible remedy for a great national evil. It was absurd, however, to expect no-license in six electorates to cure the evils of license in sixty-two electorates, and tho cure could not be effected unless nolicense was carried. The chances were that with no-license throughout the dominion there would be practically no arrests for drunkenness. Mr McCombs concluded with a plea for the bar© majority, stating that under it in 1905 forty-one electorate would have " gone dry." Mr T. E. Taylor said that what prohibitionists had charged against the liquor party in the past remained as true as ever. The liquor traffic in every country lessened industry, destroyed efficiency, discounted ambition, bred social discord, begot contempt for parental authority, Killed natural affection and undid the work of the home, the school and the church on a larger scale than all tho other vices put together. If this statement could not be proved to the satisfaction of any jury he would not speak again on a no-license platform. If this was true, the problem should be a live question in every home in New Zealand. He had realised during the past two months more than ever before that the liquor party had an extraordinary power over youth. As soon as a youth had a drink in a liquor bar he became alienated from parental authority and every ambition that made for successful life. It was forced on anybody that might go through the big towns of the dominion that there was a great army of young fellows who., not from sheer wickedness but from the carelessness of custom, had become frequenters of public bars ; and so they took sides against their parents and became more or less pledged to support what by their act they had endorsed. Consequently, the reform party did not get a fair chance, for while tho bars remained open it bad to contend with a tremendous proportion of corrupted judgment, combined with the scandalous threefifths majority. It was not astonishing that with all its noble efforts the nolicGiiso party made very slight progress. In spite of the restricted nature of the experiment it had been proved in New Zealand that no-license made for national efficiency, sobriety, comfort and prosperity, and if it had not in the six electorates done all that had been expected, it had at least pointed the right direction in which to go. It was not a matter of whether it was going to do all that it was expected to do : they must cast their votes in the right direction every time.

The meeting was closed with the Doxology.