TEMPERANCE RALLY.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19662, 23 August 1935, Page 8

TEMPERANCE RALLY.

ADDRESS BY MRS- MOFFATT CLOW. A temperance rally organised by the local branches of tho New Zealand Alliance and Women’s Christian Temperance Union and presided over by Ihe Hon. J. B. Gow, of Opotlki, was held on Wednesday, when an address was given by Mrs Moffat Clow a social worker from Belfast, who has placed herself at the service of the W.C.T.U. for a two months’ campaign in the Dominion.

The chairman, in opening the proceedings, emphasised the need for perseverance and determination in the light upon which they were entering. There was no need to be downhearted because they had experienced a setback.

Mrs Moffatt Clow dealt comprehensively with the xvorld fight against alcohol, which had been discredited and found useless either as a food or a medicine and which at the same time, with modern inventions and increased speed possibilities, was a greater menace to life and limb than ever before. Britain lagged behind in tho fight against the evil.

Speaking as a delegate who had attended the International Congress against Alcoholism, which comprised representatives from many countries, who included in their ranks prominent authorities In medicine and other professions, she atllrmed that the spread of total abstinenco was phenomenal. In Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark the Governments were most sym-) pathetic and instruction in temperance was on the curriculum in the schools. The advantages of abstinence was recognised in Japan. It was realised that alcohol was the enemy of efficiency and Us sale was being banned over large areas by the will of the people exercised voluntarily. The. same could be said of India and the speaker affirmed her belief that when that country was granted a full measure of selfgovernment it would go.“dry.” Setback In America. In Germany under the Hitler Youth Movement abstinence was enjoined upon the Individual, and in Russia, despite the fact that the national drink, vodka, was a Slate monopoly, warnings were placarded in the shops where it was sold warning customers against its dangers. Referring to America, Mrs Clow admitted it was a setback, but prophesied that in the not distant future prohibition would be restored, as the people realised that they had been ill-advised, as the glowing promises that the return of liquor would mean the return of prosperity had not been realised. Further, she asserted that restoration had been carried on a minority vole, as thousands had failed to go to the polls. Mrs Clow concluded with a plea for earnest effort in the forthcoming campaign. The Rev. 11. G. Gilbert, in a brief address, stated that they would not welcome a catch triumph. To be a success prohibition must possess the goodwill of the people and this could only he secured through personal effort. A vote of thanks to Mrs Clow proposed by Mrs Stephenson Craig and seconded by Mr F. A. de la Marc, and the singing of the National Anthem concluded tho proceedings.