SATURDAY NIGHT'S " NO-LICENSE" MEETING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12657, 20 November 1905, Page 5

SATURDAY NIGHT'S " NO-LICENSE" MEETING.

"IMPRESSIONS" BY "ONLOOKER.' 7

A<i I said in my letter which appeared in tho "Chronicle" on Monday last,. I was so interested by the proceedings at tho open-air No-lieensa meeting of the previous evening that I determined to remain in your town long enough to attend at least one other similar meeting. Thus it was that I was once more "on tho scene" at last (Saturday) night's meeting. And as a good old Canadian friend of mine would say under similar circumstances, "Wai, I'm real glad I stopped." If the first meeting was good, the second one was bettej''. To my astonishment, the publicans actually '-'came to light," and, through their President, treated the crowd to a whole dose of liquor logic, of, I must say, a very liquid character. To get on the box ho had to 6tep over the mangled remains of a whole lot of adver tising matter, for Mr. Drake preceded him, and literally ripped the column of publicans' padding to pieces. They had dragged in the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain and Cardinal Manning— big guns to blow the little No-licen»9 v arriors to smithereens. Drake collared tho guns, both oi'em, filled them up with much hotter ammunition, and fired them back at the enemy. Both shots got right home, and the onlook-r ors. realised that both Josephl Chamberlain and Cardinal Manning had - said something much better and more hun,ane than the publicans' "ad." writer had credited them with; No one seemod surprised at what Drake had done. They all seemed to take it for granted as the sort of thing that "runs in the family." Perhaps they remembered another Drake who was pretty deadly when ho "got to business" on behalf of tho Empire. But, as 1 say, President Palmer had to step over a lot of rums before he got on the box, and when ho did get there he didn't appear to be too comfortable. However, he pulled himself together, gripped his speech (which ho appeared to have very wisely committed to paper), and proceeded to roll it off in a key which, minor at first, eventually swelled into something moro audible. A person standing near ma in the crowd expressed the opinion that the speech had been "casually written to order," whereupon another person drew his attention to the polished plausibility of the suggested author, and offered to bet him a couple ot drinks that "Palmer had done the job 'on his own.' " Being a stranger, I didn'tf venture to express an topinion on tho matter. I was interested m: the speech itself, not in where it came from. Mr. Palmer had a good long innings, and I don't suppose you, Mr. Editor, would allow me to follow his speech right through. But I would like ;to givo my impressions of the principal points. "Ha seemed to be bothered a good deal about what had happened at r, place called Aramoho. He explained that ho had taken a number of his fellow publicans up to that meeting to see that tho No-license speakers behaved themselves: and didn't say nasty things about them. He complained that when they reached the hall they learned that tho* police had been telephoned for. He

'said they didn't-go up--1© disturb themeeting, and then he went on to explain about the report of the meeting which ho had instructed Mr. Louis" Cohen to convey to the representative of tho Press Association, the truth of which message, aa you know, Sir, has siuco been publicly denied. But Mr. Palmer was most impressive when he got on to the subject of "sly grog.". For tho time being he became an ardent advocate of temperance, and the pictures which he drew of the awful ravages which would be wrought by; strong drink once the licensed bars were closed made me shudder. He pictured his own hotel: thirty boarders, Sir, each with a, keg of beer and a gallon of whisky in his room, himself and his wife legally entitled to do the same, all the staff equally stocked with privato grog—and no control! It would hi awful. They would simply wallow in the stuff, and the Victoria would be a perfect nest of reeking "sly grogge'ries." I wondered what Mr. Palmer would have said if a No-license speaker bad said anything like this about the Victoria! And I also wondered why it hadn't occurred to Mr. Palmer that there are such things as unlicensed boarding houses existing in Wanganui to-day, and that the people' who live in them are legally entitled to "wallow in it"* now, if they want to. But I don't suppose he would care to say that such a thing is ever done in any decent wellconducted house, or by men who, "license" or "no license," have any self rc-spect. He also seemed, to have overlooked the fact that if the Victoria became a boarding house, with Mr. Palmer as proprietor, it would be nobody's fault but his own if there was "no : control." As for Ashburton, well Mr. Palmer "went the whole hog." He declared that every, other shop, office, and house was a "sly grog" "shop, and ha actually waxed indignant when the people jeered the statement. Mr. Palmer's "tumble" on this statement reminded me of another similar incident of which I had heard. A man was speaking on the "what I've been told" principle to another man, and, said he, "A friend of mine told me that when he was in Ashburton a resident took him to the top of a hill outside the town and pointing to a particular house said, 'Do you see that house ? It's the only one in Ashburton in which you cannot get sly grog.' " Whereupon, tho other man .quietly remarked, "That's a lie, anyhow, for there isn't ?• hill within twenty miles of Ashburton!" Mr. Palmer didn't venture quite so far as tho man on the hill, but he went far enough to excite the ridicule of his hearers. After Mr. Palmer cam* a gentleman who, I gathered, was tho legal guide, philosopher, and friend of tho local liquor traffic, Mr. Louis Cohen. Mr. Cohen dropped in quite casually, casually referred to what he described as a philosophical aspect of the question, which,, he casually mentioned, ho had never beard put that way before, and then proceeded to casually refer to his casual.connection with the Press Association incident, and, incidentally, pleaded with the Rev. Mr. Drake to admit that he had said something which might be construed into a justification of the otherwise unjustifiable message, and concluded by casually attempting to belittle Mr. Drake when that gentleman rose to reply by interjecting something of an exceedingly gentlemanly character about a "jack-in-the-box." Mr. Cohen then casually withdrew, apparently well satisfied with hw casual performance; but I couldn't help thinking, in a casual sort of way, that it would be interesting to know how the bill of costs will read. It occurred to me that the items might run something like this:— £ s.d. To casually receiving instructions from the President of Licensed Victuallers' Association as to report of Aramoho meeting to be supplied to the Press Association agent To casually agreeing to convey particulars of report to the Press Association agent To "casually verifying" statements made to me by my client To casually acting as messenger for same, and repeating statements to agent of Press Association To casually writing to "Chronicle" and "correcting" the "mis-statement" that I had given the information to the I agent of the Press Associa- ! tion To casually cursing my own casual folly when I read the footnote which the Editor of the "Chronicle-" casually appended to my letter To casually "swatting up" a " philosophical aspect" of the liquor question, and casually reheareaTng same at open-air meeting of .No-Li cense party To casually calling the chairman of the meeting by whose courtesy I was permitted- to speak a " jack-in-the-box"

Such odd thoughts do occur to one at odd moments, do they not? Of course tbia imaginary bill of costs had nothing directly to do with Saturday night's meeting, but somehow it casually dropped into my mind and has in consequence been casually incorporated in my "impressions" or the gathering. It occurred to me-, too, that after all "paid prohibition parasites" (vide liquor advertisement) are not the only "interested" parties. But my major impression, so to speak, is that the Nor license party scored another win. And, by tho way, I couldn't help thinking how generous it was ot them not only to allow the enemy to occupy their platform, but to actually hold the torches fQr him! 'Would the ."other side" have done the same ?. I wonder if I shall be able to attend the next meeting. ... Perhaps I shall drop in— casually! •