PROHIBITION MEETING IN LAWRENCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 4251, 22 June 1895, Page 3

PROHIBITION MEETING IN LAWRENCE.

Taking into account the atmospheric conditions on Thursday evening, the meeting at the Volunteer Hall, called to promote the formation of a Prohibition league in Lawrence, if not representative, was large, much larger, indeed, than one might be inclined to expect. It was very largely composed of women, young women, principally; but, as the chairman, the Rev. Mr Jory, very pertinently remarked, the women have now the franchise and their sympathies and presence at a meeting counts for equally as much as the attendance of the other sex. The meeting was addressed by Messrs A. S. Adams and F. Grahame, of the Dunedin Prohibition League. Mr Adams prefaced his address by reading from the Tuapeka Times of the 19th instant a paragraph supplied us by a Dunedin correspondent. The paragraph in question did not invest Mr Adams with quite the complete catalogue of public virtues to whioh, no doubt, he considers he has some claim, as most men do who have devoted much time to what they believe to be a great cause and have hurled innumerable denunciations at a popular weakness. Mr Adams suffered from suppressed but yet visible agitation, or, perhaps, virtuous indignation, and having put the meeting in possession of what they must have been already pretty well familiar with, he dramatically hit himself on the chest and, in tragic tones, said " I'm the man." He was not as unthankful as might be supposed to the Tuapeka Times for introducing him in the manner it did to the people of Lawrence. But he had neither "shrieked nor frothed," and he challenged the editor of the Tuapeka Times or any other man'to show that " Adams and Co." had done anything to throw back the cause of temperance or repel instead of attract the general public. At this point Mr Adams threw off some of the restraint which he had prudently imposed on himself, " let himself out " a little, and with a gasp or two of indignation, flourished the offending newspaper once round his head and brought it down on the table with what, in amateur theatricals, might be called " fine effect." Having recovered his normal composure, the speaker oalled upon the audience to note whether he shrieked and frothed and was the intemperate temperance advocate the Tuapeka Times correspondent had described him. But he was not going to deny that he used strong language, and, if they liked, violent language at times. Experience had taught him that strong and violent language was justified by the nature of the evil and the forces that were behind it, against which the Prohibitionists had to fight. He had the authority of so distinguished a man as John Bright for saying that violent language was warranted when employed on behalf of a cause that stood on a moral basis. The drink traffic was an evil that could not be fought with kid gloved. It was too late in the day now for any man to question the enormity of that evil. It was written down through the centuries in letters of blood and tears. Strong drink had ruined the bodies and souls and intellects of millions of their fellow-beings, robbed children of their fathers, and women of their husbands, made homes desolate, filled the jails and the madhouses and supplied victims for the scaffold. It had been so for hundreds of years, and it was the case to-day. And what was the State doing to prevent this? It supplied jails to punish the drunkard, while, on the other hand, it tolerated and protected and made a profit out of the very means whereby the drunkard was manufactured. He (Mr Adams) said: Destroy the cause, shut up the publichouses, and then you will have done with the drunkard. Nothing could be more senseless than the notion that by putting the victim of drink in jail for a few weeks or months he could be cured of his craving for alcohol. The only remedy was | Prohibition, and their object in coming from Dunedin was to enlist the sympathy and the support of the people in the Lawrenoe district in favor of that policy. The Prohibitionists had a measure prepared which would be introduced into Parliament during the session, and he hoped they would petition their member to give it his support when it came on. They intended to organise the whole of Tuapeka, to form Prohibition leagues in* every part of the district, and not alone in every part of the Tuapeka district but in every part of Otago, and by that means they hoped to bring such pressure to bear upon Parliament and the Government as would compel the passing of a measure giving the people the power to say straight out whether the drink traffic shall be continued or not. He should like to warn certain of those people interested in the drink traffic in Lawrence that if the disgraceful conduct which took place at the last licensing election here was repeated, the temperance party would show them that they were strong enough and determined enough to put such a law on the Statute Book as would make such conduct impossible in the future. He believed that men and women ;n Lawrence were visited and threatened and coerced by the drink people at the last licensing election. He did not blame them under such circumstances for not voting ; but he now warned those who were guilty of such conduct not to repeat it at their risk. The Prohibition party would not quietly stand by and see the liberties and privileges of the people trodden under foot by those interested in the liquor traffic. He also predicted that the time would come when clergymen who were now afraid, for reasons which he need not specify, to raise their voices against the unholy liquor traffic, would be compelled by the force of a growing public opinion to take their stand on this question on the side of righteousness and morality. The speaker next referred, to, the large number of public houses in Lawrence, and, referring to the revenue derived from such a source, said there were people who advocated the liquor traffic for the sake of the local revenue it produced. To show the weakness of such a position he cited the case of Tapanui, where all the licensed houses had been closed, but yet the people there were going to light their town by electricity ; they had reduced their bank overdraft by £80, and soon expected to be able to wipe it out altogether. Mr Adams concluded by urging on the meeting the necessity of promoting by every means in their power the qause of Prohibitipri in their district. ' ' Mr Grahame also addressed the meeting, advocating Prohibition, as tb,e only effective

I means of dealing with the drink question, and stated that the law as it at present stood should be so amended as to punish not only the publican but those who drank in his house within prohibited hours. | A resolution was unanimously carried by the meeting approving of the draft Bill intended to be submitted to Parliament during the session by the Prohibitionist party, and requesting the Hon. Mr Larnaoh, the member for the district, to give it bis support. A committee was also formed for the purpose of communicating with the other centres of the district with the ultimate object of arranging for the formation of branches of the Prohibition League and of co-operating during political and licensing elections. The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chairman.