SIX O'CLOCK CLOSING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17078, 4 September 1917, Page 3

SIX O'CLOCK CLOSING.

ADDRESS BY MR, LEONARD ISITT, M.P.

To an audience which packed the Opera House to its utmost capacity, Mr. Leonard lsitt. M.P. for Christchurch North, last evening delivered an eloquent and masterly address in support of the popular demand for the closing of tlie licensed bars at 6 p.m. as a war economy and efficiency reform. For upwards of an hour and a half the veteran champion of temperance handled his subject from every essential point of view, subjecting every conceivable argument against the reiorm to the test of hard facts and a keen and searching analysis. He was there, he said, to speak not as a. Prohibitionist, but as a citizen and a representative of the people, and as such to demand that for th e purpose of enabling the Dominion to do ite full share towards the winning of the great war Parliament should insist upon the curtailment of a traffic which was beneficial Oiiiy to the men who made money out of it, and which, from first to last, constituted ou e -of the greatest sources of needless and wholly wasteful expenditure-. With incisive logic, tempered with equally incisive humour, he elleotively exploded the time-worn "revenue; 3 bogey, showing the folly ot spending four million pounds a year upon a harmful luxury for tho sake ot securing one million of revenue, the said million being wholly required to repair, as far as was possible, the damage and injury occasioned by the traffic. "If," he said. "I were'to suggest that the people of New Zealand spend four millions a year on fireworks all to be blown up in/ smoke for the sake of getting one million of revenue out of the ridiculous expenditure, you would say 1 was fit for a lunatic asylum. Yet the fireworks could do no harm to the people, morally, mentally, or physically ; while the liquor on which we fire wasting four millions a year is productive of infinite harm, impairing our national efficiency, wrebking men and women, and bringing poverty and misery to many homes." As to what was likely to happen in Parliament, Mr. lsitt said that if the reform demanded by the people were'not carried this session, th e responsibility would rest upon "the individual' members of the National Cabinet, for it would be their votes which would decide the majority.-. He beaeved, he said, that on this occasion Mr, Massey would give the members of the House a free hand' to vote as they saw fit; and if the members of the National Government did their duty in regard to what they knew to be the wishes of the great majority of the electors, . then 6 o'clock closing would be enacted. As to the question of compensation, he affirmed that the "Trade" had absolutely no ulaim. While we were fighting for our liberties, while th c fate of the Empire was at stake, and while the country was conscripting men and sending them to risk their lives on the field, of battle, how could it be said that the liquor sellers had any right to be compensated if, for th c sake of national efficiency^ they were required to conform to the hours of business to which practically every other retail trade in the Dominion was limited? However, while on principle he was opposed to tho payment ,of compensation .where no compensation was due. he held that there should be a readjustment of rent as between landlord and tenant, and he would not be opposed to allowing a rebate of ihe license fee proportionate to tß©j >redue£i-on. of trading hours. Mi\ lsitt;. was frequently applauded, and at "the conclusion qf his address he courteously and clearly answered a number of questions. ' On the motion of Mr. G. W. McCanl, seconded, by Mr. John Jones, it was enthusiastically resolved, with only two or three audible dissentients, "That in order to secure the utmost efficiency in war-time, and in view of the widespread and urgent demand for six o'clock a-s the latest, hour for the sale of liquor, as proved by; the signatures of over iso,ooo electors to the petitions to-Par-, lin.merit, this meeting reaffirms its demand for six .o'clock closing as the absolute minimum of reform, and it refuses to.consider any later hour, such as seven .o'clock. Failing the enactment of six o'clock closing, this meeting strongly urges Parliament to grant a referendum on the question of National Prohibition, to have immediate effect and to remain in force for the period of the war and of demobilisation."

A heai-ty vote of. thanks to the speaker, and to the chairman (Mr. W. *A. Veitch, M.P.), followed by the singing of the National Anthem, closed the meeting.