The White Ribbon: FOR GOD AND HOME AND HUMANITY Saturday July 15, 1899. The Return of Leonard M. Isitt.

White Ribbon, Volume 9, Issue 46, 1 July 1899, Page 6

The White Ribbon: FOR GOD AND HOME AND HUMANITY Saturday July 15, 1899. The Return of Leonard M. Isitt.

The return of the Kev. Leonard M. Isitt is a welcome reinforcement to the temperance workers of the colony. The enthusiastic meetings of Wellington and Christchurch show the deep hold Mr Isitt has on the affection of those with whom he worked aforetime. In LngVml he has given a great impetus to ihe temperance movement, and |>y his lectures on New Zealand, illustrated

with limelight views, he gave many thousands a peep at the physical and social features of the colony. Mr Isitt has lost none of his fire and vigour, and the fresh facts and figures, and the in-

creased insight into the ways of the liquor trade that he has gained during his travels, lend an added force to his

eloquent speech. It is a curious and welcome testimony to the unselfish zeal of the temperance workers to find these interested in the continuance of licenses trying to discredit Mr Is.tt by stating that he asked for and obtained a fair payment for his lectures. It is not thought discreditable for a preacher, or a politician, or a

singer, or an actor, or any other man or woman who devotes the whole of time

and energy to the public service, to receive the means of livelihood in return for their labours. Of late years, Mr Isitt has devoted the whole of his great gifts of brain and tongue to the work of combating the terrible evil of the trade in alcohol, and it wo’dd give us great pleasure indeed to know that he has received in return as great a pecuniary recompense as, say, the manager of a brewery company. By his strenuous and exhausting work in the Temperance cause while engaged in the regular work of a W esleyan minister, Leonard Isitt amply proved the purity and unselfishness of his motives, and in this colony the disparaging remarks of the liquor organs should have little weight.