CURRENT NOTES.

White Ribbon, Volume 5, Issue 58, 1 April 1900, Page 8

CURRENT NOTES.

The arrangements for the Fourth Triennial Convention of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Australasia, according to the March number of the New South W ales White Ribbon Signal, were completed early in March, and promised to he of great interest. The Sessions were advertised to he held in Adelaide, S. A., from March 29 to April 6, inclusive. On Friday, March 30, a United Temperance Demonstration was to be held in the Adelaide Town Hall, preceded by a torch-light procession. The Hon. F. \Y. Holder (Premier) was to occupy the chair, and Mrs Nolan, Mrs Harrison Lee, and Mr John Yale were to give addresses. A Juvenile I)einonstration, a Suffrage and Good Citizens’ Me ii lg, a Mother s Conference, a “Y” Demonstration were all on the programme, and, at a memorial service, the Rev. Joseph Berry was announced to give “ Personal Impressions of Miss Willard.

Miss Powell, our N.Z. Corresponding Secretary, was a passenger to England by the steamer Ophir. In every Australian port she met friends, and during her brief stay in Adelaide addressed a gathering of W.C.T.U. workers on ‘ Prohibition in New Zealand.” As our readers are aware, Miss Powell will represent the New Zealand W.C.I.U. at the Close of the Century World’s Temperance Congress in London, which has been convened hy the Archbishop of Canterbury, and at the World’s W.C.T.U. Convention in Edinburgh, in writing of Miss Powell, Our T(deration says : “ She is a bright and logical speaker, and in England should help the cause of womanhood suffrage, of which she is an enthusiastic advocate.”

Mrs Harrison Lee has generously given £IOO to the V ictorian Alliance as a parting gift, and her friends, Mr and Mrs J. T. Mitchell, have given on condition that an equal sum is raised by April y, when her farewell meeting will be held in Melbourne. Mrs Lee intended

leaving Melbourne for Fremantle by the steamer King Luitpold on April io, and, after a month’s work in Western Australia, taking the next Germaw boat for England.

The Triennial Local Option Polls were taken during February in the municipalities of New South Wales, except in the city of Sydney, where they will beheld on ist December next. The figures in only a comparatively few cases have been given in the daily Press, but a complete return will be published by the Government later on. So far as can be judged, the voting has again gone in the great majority of the wards against any increase in the number of publican’s licenses, and against removals from one house to another. Thus far the vote is very satisfactory. It is a distinct gain to the Temperance side, li will keep out applications as far as can be estimated, for about 300 new licenses.

Lord Roberts, speaking at a council meeting of the Army Temperance Association, commented strongly (says the Christian t ommonwealth) upon the public supplying soldiers with drink when marching through London, preparatory to starting for Africa. Shortly, he said, the militia would be embodied. Those responsible for the control of the army deeply and earnestly hoped that the public would understand that it was not a really kindly thing to give drink to young soldiers. It was better to encourage them to be abstainers—better for them, better for the army, and better for the country they served.”

Drink. —lt is estimated that there are invested in liquor production and traffic, in the United Kingdom, from to There are also many thousands of persons now interested as shareholders in great breweries and distilleries, not to speak of the number of persons engaged in the wholesale and retail trade. For every primary day school in England and W ales there are six licensed houses, and for every minister of religion there are ihree licensed houses ! The trade is able largely to act as a unit, and its one and only policy is “ trade interests.” It is not difficult to see that such a combination is a direct menace to the welfare of any State or community. In England it can turn the scales at election contests, and Messrs Rowntree and Sherwell estimate that, by putting forth

its full strength, it can secure from 100 to 200 votes in the House of Commons. Hence, as they wJI say, one question that “ awaits solution is, how best to eliminate the public house interest as a political force, and so dissociate politics from the sate of drink.” — Bkotiikrhood.

The following has been received by our N.Z. Union from Mrs Masterman, Corresponding Secretary for the W.C.T.U. of New South Wales: “New South Wales sends loving greetings to her New Zealand sisters, wishing them every success and congratulating them upon their late effort and success re the Local Option Poll. See Gal. 6 9."

Telegrams from Australia inform us that the mortality from the plague in Sydney has not risen to more than thirty per cent., and is comparatively mild in its nature. f its advent in Australia has done nothing else for New Zealand, it has roused some of our public bodies to the necessity of seeing to the proper sanitation of our cities, and to the necessity for vigilance in the matter. We do not l>elieve in a gospel of fear, hut it seems as if some people had to be scared into keeping their back yards chan and their sewage in a wholesome condition.

All lovers of their kind will be glad to learn that the new prison regulations just gazetted give increased encouragement to prisoners to mitigate their sentences i>y good behaviour, and provide a more equitable system for penalising those who misbehave themselves during the currency of their various terms. Extra facilities are provided for those who secure advancement in grade lor correspondence or interviews with friends. The scale of gratuities has been somewhat increased, so that in future convicts may receive more money upon their filtration than under the old regulations, but it will be paid only in instalments, and to the Probation Officer or gaoler, in trust for the released prisoner, and not directly to the man himself.

The trial of James McDonald, of Ohingaiti, for giving two children a boy and girl —of six years three glasses of beer each, and making them “ dead drunk, 'was heard at Wanganui Supreme Court on the 2nd inst., the prisoner being sentenced to twelve months im-

prisonment. Doubtless there was as much stupidity as brutality in the outrage, as the man himself was in a state of intoxication when found, but for all that the punishment was not too severe, and we trust it will serve as an object lesson to others who may wish to amuse themselves by such disgusting and harmful practices. All such instances should rouse parents to a realisation of the practical impossibility of legislating for the “ traffic,’ and to the necessity, on the most humanitarian grounds, for urging the benefits of “ No-License ” on their respective districts.

We are glad.to note that the Kew Branch of the Australian Natives As sociation, at its recent Conference, put on the agenda the following motion . - “That the incoming board of directors be instructed to take steps to prevent the sale of cigarettes, tobacco and other narcotics to, and the use by, youths under sixteen years of age.” i'he proposer of the motion said it was brought forward in the interest ol the health and morals of the children, American saitistics showed that of juvenile criminals 92 per cent, were cigarette-smokers The motion was carried almost unanimously.