Some Indirect Methods of Temperance Reform.

White Ribbon, Volume 6, Issue 71, 1 April 1901, Page 1

Some Indirect Methods of Temperance Reform.

Paper read by Mbs. Allen, M.A , LL.B., before Convention. In choosing the subject of my paper, I was actuated, not so much by the desire to say something new, because in these days, when the Prohibition question is so much discussed by tlie public, one despairs of finding anything new to say upon it, but rather by the desire to find some new phase, some aspect not so much discussed, some direction not yet fully explored, in which the energies of the bulk of the Prohibition and Temperance advocates in the colony might be steadily employed to the ultimate furtherance of the cause. \\ e cannot all be platform speakers; we cannot all be house-to-house canvassers. And to some minds —to my own mind platform speaking and house-to-house canvassing are not productive of the most permanent and enduring results; Effective they certainly are at election times, but that is because the attention of the people is roused, and their minds receptive and impressionable. But an impression readily made is readily lost, and during the interval between poll and poll we know it is difficult, and increasingly difficult, to stir up any enthusiasm, any feeling, by either public speeches or private

canvassing. And in any case, at any time, the bulk of our Temperance advocates are inactive, they are not workers except in so far as by their example and by their quiet expression of opinion they are making an impression upon those immediately around them. Many of them are unwilling to assert them-

President N. Z. W.C.T.U. selves, feeling, as indeed we ail feel at times, that the assumption of an aggres sive attitude makes enemies as well as friends for our cause, and that the intemperate methods to which our enthusiasm and zeal sometimes make us prone are somewhat inconsistent with our claim to l>e “temperance ” reformers.

At any rate, we know that we lie under that accusation. So 1 have felt that, if I could indicate some direction in w'hich quiet, unostentatious work might be done for the cause of Temperance reform, I should be assisting the cause in a really valuable way, besides offering some welcome suggestions to many who would be glad to assist in any way that lay within their powers and circumstances. All of us who have read anything about the efforts of Temperance reformers know that one fact which is always insisted upon is the necessity for providing some other means of amusement, pastime, recreation, occupation, if we propose to deprive the frequenters of public-houses of that means of forgetting the worries and cares of every-day life, or if we hope to induce them voluntarily to forego their present method of enjoyment. We recognise the truth of the argument, but I am afraid that most of us have not, so far, regarded it as a basis for practical work. What I want to urge now is that it shall be taken as a basis for practical work. I cannot claim for what I have to say that it is in any sense new. Probably, when I have finished, you will say to one another that you “ knew all that before.” But, however many times you may have heard it or read it, I feel that it is so important a feature of our move*

ment that I want to repeat it, and insist upon »t, and to ask you if you do not think it worth while tr* embody it in the scheme of practical work of the Society. First of all, then, in order to ensure the provision of counter attration* to j.ublichouMeH, I think that we Temperance reformers ought to Ik* active citizens, tt cannot now l»c claimed for our women that they have no voice in municij»ul affairs, because the recent extension of the franchise is wide enough to take in most, if not all, of us. We can make our influence felt, if we wili, at every local election in the colony; and in this way we can ensure that the management of our cities and towns will materially help in our work of Temperanoe reform. Ix*t me try to indicate how it can Ik* made to help. We want to make the homes of our jK*ople attractive enough to rival the public-house. We need, then, in the tirst plaee, as much ->jx*n space alx.ut all the hotis**# as can be procured. That is physiol*.gically necetaary f*»r the strength**ning of 1 m»tl* min<l and Ixxly of the dwellers in the towns. And l**sideg,we want r*x»ni for gi r*lens everyw here for they afford not only pleasure to the sight, an*l sr* add to the comfort 01 home, but they serve to occupy the leisure time of the fathers and sons, who might Ik* tempted, if unoccupied, to stroll to the nearest str**et corner to meet companions and friends, and so on, perhaps, to have a drink together. Therefore, we Temperance reformers must be warm supporters of all “Greater Wellington,” “Greater Christchureh” schemes. We must endeavour to extend the Ismefits of city life as far as jx»ssible outside, in order that the surplus folk from the crowded city streets may Ik* induced to move a 1 ttle further out, where they may live in cottages with gardens, and grow their own fruit and vegetables and flowers, and have homes that look cheerful as they come back to them from work, and welcome them with a bright ami smiling exterior. The sm«*kcgrim»*d, close packed 1 to uses of some of our str**ets are, 1 am inclined to think, a direct incentive to intemperance. So we must induce as many as possible of our working people to live out in the suburl*s For this w*> shall want ready means of access t<> our ideal cottages. Not everyone can j***ss**gs a bicycle, ami if they c**ul*l w** should still want trams for the women with babies, ami the halt and weak and old. So w*> shall have to advocate most earnestly every practicable and sound scheme for the extension of the tramway service in all directions to our suburban homos. Ami, ol course, we want the cottages well lit, and supplied with water. So w«* shall have to advocate the establishment or extension and pro|K>i maintenance of a water supply, and apply our minds to the solution of the difficult problem whether the city can supply el**ctric light U*tt**r and more cheaply than private companies For all these things add materially to tincomfort and pleasure of home, and we want to make the suburban homes the pleasantest places in the world for their occupants. If I ( . ol ,ld I would lay on steam drying apparatus in w inter time to every home, t*M», ami compel the owners of houses, by municipal regulation, to build-in washing tubs and copi*ers and tit uj wringing machines. Seriously, however, the relation of the municipality to the home is so close that we can onlv ensure really comfortable homes for our

people by active participation in municipal work. Then we want healthy, educative occupation for the leisure hours and holidays of our people. In this colony the bulk of the working population have sixt**en hours a day for eating, sleeping, and recreation. At tin* least that should allow of four hours for recreation. And Insides this, there an* Sun-lays and the weekly half-holidays, and the innumerable stray holidays throughout tin- year. We must help to provide for them. F**r this purpose we want public halls, with occasional entertainments *>f a bright and attractive kind —music, and dancing, ami recitals, ami dramatic performances: anything that is bright ami healthy. And these entertainments must Ik* cheap. They need not necessarily Ik* free, for people w ill gladly pay a small price for entertainment. I remeinlK*r that the sixpenny |h-j-ular concerts in Christchurch used t** Ik* thronged, until they degenerated, and the «|ualit y of the music was no longer an attraction. Hut the quality of our municipal entertainments will never Im* allowed to deteriorate. Ami they will not U> so fr»**ju»*nt or so wanting in variety as t*> lose their power to attract. And they will Ik* given chiefly in the w iuter time, when the evenings cannot l*e spent in the garden or in the parks. And the hall in which the) are given must Ik* bright and warm ami beautiful, for the pe* *ple we want to helpareas fond of warmth ami Ix-anty as any of us. The l there should U* reading rooms equally bright ami attractive, with magazines ami pa|M*rs and l»ooks ; and gymnasiums where the chief condition of instruction is regulai attendance.

In tin* summer time we shall n**e«l plenty of parks and o]k*ii spac«*s, and on fine holidays music will U* provided in these places. Then we shall do all w. can to promote horticulture. For the latter purjx.se it will Ik* desirable for temperance reformers t*. stimulate the Identifying societies ami horticultural societies, and promote their work in every jx.ssible way; tor gardening is one of the* l>est «.f occujtatioiis for the temperanee reformer to encourage. It is absorbing, lx»th of time ami interest, ami it is reproductive in every sense. Ever)’ garden, well k**|*t. helps to make the city more* U-auti-ful. ami j.leasanter t*» live in, and every plant or flower, well grown, stimulate* tin* gardener to grow another. Ami then, t*x. emulation plays a great j.art in tin* gardener’s success. Who *l* k*s n*»t know the effect, when one owns a garden, of seeing a |M*culiarly Ix-autiful flower in someone else’s garden ? We want one like it forthwith. And most «.f us have noticed, I exjK*et. how, when one garden in a short street is part icularly w ell kept and bright, all tin* other gardens smarten nj. almost insensibly. No gardener likes to see his next do*»r neightx.ur making a lx*tt**r show than he. S> w e must endeavour to stimulate* the gardening fever by promoting flower and vegetable show s, for children as well as their elders, ami cottage garden coin|K*titi<*ns. What an effect it would have ujx»n the digestions of our |K*oj>le if they all grew their own vegetables ! And, as I suspect indigestion to be a not unfruitful source of intcmjK-rance, what an effect it would have ujH»n the cause of temjK*ranee reform ! The idea of indigestion, and the part it plays in the creation of drunkards, brings in** to another, ami almost more imjx.rtant phase of my subject, the necessity for training our housewives.

I Every girl child is a jxwsible housewife; and amongst the jk**.j>lc who an* not rich, tl at almost invariably means that she must, at some time *>r other, UnJoine the cook of the family Judging by our performances so far, one would imagine that we ladived that the art of co- king was a gift that came by nature, or else that indigestion was a thing unknown to us. Unfortunately, on** »I»k*s not know by in tinet how to cook, and indigestion is rife amongst us. Now I f**el persuaded, and the more I think of it, the more assured 1 f**el. that almost always when a man logins t<> feel, without having it suggested to him, that he wants a “drink,’ a stimuli! it *>r reviver of some kind, it is becaust he i**cls an uncomfortable, oppressed, or unaatixflel f«*eling inside. We all know the kiml ot h*eling incipient indigestion. There should be no such feelings f-.r active workers in l>«*tw**en meals if the f«HKI taken then is sufficient in quantity and of g<*->d quality an ! well c*x»k«*d, I am not imputing any blame to ih** housewives. (V.kmg is au art that -I*k*s not come by nature. An-1 very few *.f them are j»roperly taught. We must endeavour to find a w ay to teach them, and it should m»t Ik* hard to do. In most of our tow ns it has Ixen lx*gun, and we Temperance advocates should do <*ur U*st t » help the work. 1 lK*lieve that in <*n** year, taking two or tlir-e hours a week, a girl could Ik* taught enough to prevent her ruining her own or anyone else’s digestion thereafter by her cooking. If possible, I should k**ej. this work separate* from school work. lx*cause it will l>e entered into by the girls with more enthusiasm and zest if it is put before them as a recreation rather than hs a regular school subject. Hut cooking is not the only accomplishment a housewife n« cds. She wants some small training in ordinary housework and laundry work. I aui almost inclined to think that if you teach her cleanliness ami order, that is enough. But very few of the w* men in our poorer homes seem to kn-.w how much quicker work can Ik* done if it is done regularly ami in a projx-r orderly manner. Disorder is the prime cans** of trouble in a mis managed home. 1 kn-.w h«»w scornfully many women would answer me if i said so to them Hut it th-y tried it persistently, and made their children practise it from the loginning, they would tin-1 that some degree *>f orderly metluxl made the work twice as light. I kn-.w the children do cry, ami the chimney sometimes d*H*s smoke, and s*. the dinner has to Ik* got with a ru-li, and is sjx.il*>*! thereby. Hut if the children arc j.r--jx*rly tended, washed and fed regu. larly, they cry much less : and the chimney doesn’t smoke s<> much if thefluesare regularly cleaned, ami father isn't half so cross if the dinner is a little worse on one day in the week, provided he has it nicely served the other six. So we want to train our children, lx.ys as well as girls, to a sense of order. The ordinary school work should helj. in this, and the cooking lesson would lx* an even greater h**lj.. Hut we can all of us assist, t*x>, by training our own children, for by this exauijde they will uni doiil.tcdly stimulate all the children they corin contact w ith. And wherever there are n t cooking classes, we should lielj. in establishu : them.and with them we should try toestabli i classes for other household work. Mniiu.il classes rf all other kinds will help, too, for they will all assist in the material improveincut «>f the home, in additions to its comfort and lx*auty. The lx.y who can do a little carjx*ntering, and is encouraged to indulge his

hobby, the girl whr has a taste for fine needle work, should Is* assisting in no small degree t,. make the home brighter, prettier, and hippier. And yet. in the poor homes, nay, ~\,n in the homes that are not really |x>or, the encouragement given to tastes like these is of the smallest. The children are not kept about the homes. They are allowed to go out, hu«l *« ek their triends outside. To me it seems, I earnestly hoj»e 1 may ls> wrong, that home life jjj i,.*a and less fostered in this colony. Aim ngst the poorer people that you know, how many h .mes are there where the children, just growing up, are encouraged to have their Mends occasionally, to work together and amuse one another, under the eye of father and mother 9 }b>w much interchange of small hospitality is there in this way P What efforts are made to keep the young folks in in the evenings, to enjoy themselves at horns? Companionship they will have; if not at home, then outside: if not fn*ely and openly, then surreptitiously. And the years when they an* growing up are just the years w hen they learn to do mischief, just the years when they most ner*d the restraint of home, the watchful eye of hither and mother. In some way or other we must try to stimulate a sense of the value of quiet pleasant home life, of the necessity for keep ng the children within its influence’ A walk through Wellington in the evening w ill effort! plenty of proof of the need of this. And 1 think the need will in jmrt Is- met bv the means 1 have already mentioned. And no question that 1 know of is more important to us who wish to n*-e the use of alcoholic liquors discontinued. We must, in the children growing up, substitute healthy tastes for unhealthy ones, healthy interests aodoccupations for unhealthy ones in their leisure hours. 1 believe that Inhibition would la* impossible in our cities with Hie present conditions of home life obtaining. In America, Prohibition has lieen a success chiefly in the sparsely populated districts. The system ot State Prohibition has I teen abandoned in the States with the greatest density of population amongst those which have tried it. That is a tact which should teach us a lesson worth learning. We must make our city life different from what it is in America if we want to make Prohibition a possibility. Wo can do it it we begin now. If we do not begin now, we shall find the same •vsults ensue as in America. The main tendencies of city life are the same all the world over There is, therefore, a plain duty cast upon us, it we wish to aid in this work of temperance reform, we must beCome earnest advocates of, and, so far as bes in our power, earnest workers for municipal reform and education reform. I do not mean that we are to support any and every glowing scheme that may I** propounded. We ar< to discriminate between sound and unsound for otherwise the work of progress would ultimately l»e retarded. W e must be citizens in the fullest sens** of the word, realising that in this direction, perhaps even more than in legislation, lies the lest solution of our p~<>llem. The schools, the local l*oards and < uiucils, are all means to our end. Nor do I mean that we should endeavour to create a temperance party in local polities. 1 bat must be very clearly understood! for anything approaching such a result might possibly be t ital to our desires. More often than not an ulterior motive tends to defeat the immediate object. It is enough for us to know that the end we seek is not alone the immediate reform

we advocate, though that in itself is good. If we obtrude the ultimate aim we introduce an element of discord that cannot possibly serve any good purpose. If we go into these things we must go simply as citizens, working heartily with those who are opposed to our views on temperance questions as well as with those who support us. Paul, if you remember, found it expedient to Is* “all things to all men.” Our cause would not suffer if some of us borrowed a little of his worldly wisdom. Some of you, perhaps, will think my suggestions far-fetched and a little strained. Hut I am growing more and more convinced that the kind ot life I have endeavoured just to hint at for our people is what we shall have to aim at if we want t<> achieve our end a life full of bright, healthy, interesting occupation and recreation 1 have not tried to exhaust the possible means by which to attain the end: 1 have simply put the idea forth as it has oeeurred to me more than once, and I know that if it seems worth acting ujstn, each of you will find your own experience suggesting innumerable similar ways in which your activity can Ik* employed towards the same end. 1 would not have it thought that I am ignorant of, or that 1 place insufficient value u| n>n the work which the Soeiety, in its many branches, is doing at present. Many of the ideas which 1 have tried to express are the outcome of suggestions which I have received from the work which the Society already doe-. And none of the methods 1 have mentioned need, so far as I can see, interfer** with its present usefulness, before I eh*s *, however, I want to suggest an extension of some of the society’s present undertakings. Amongst the U-st work of the Christchurch branch, almost the most valuable is, I think, the Teinpcranee Hooth at the annual Agricultural Show. I am not aware whether other branches of the Society have adopted the same idea, but I <io think it is an idea which ought to Is* put into operation at every large Show in the colony. It serves the double purpose of providing a temperance luncheon and refreshment room, and of furnishing the Society with funds, and it is a conspicuous success in Im»tli directions. • t 111*1 * * ** * si - 4 V.,«l> /n ««A | ghMnb l ■-•

~ny time of the day, business men might drop in and enjoy comparative privacy tor a conversation over a cup of tea or coffee. I he establishment should also provide a plain luncheon of grills and fish and sweets, and a light afternoon tea. But the main joints should U} that it should Is* appropriated to the use of men only, and that they should Inable to use it at aiiy time during the day. and procure their cup of coffee when they wanted it. I would suggest, also, the addition ot a smoking room, because I Is-liev® that tli.it would greatly add to its attractiveness. And I feel assured that an establishment of tinkind would work wonders in accustoming men to do without the public-houses, which are now the only resorts for the purpose. It might be made available, too, for meetings of sock*

ties and clubs, of which so many are now held at hotels. Then there is another institution which need not wait the slower process of municipal development. That is, tin* social club for working men, —a place where men might gather, as they do in the University Settlement Clubs in London, and spend their evenings together, over their game of hi Ilian Is, or chess, or cards, and enjoy their pi|** or eup of coffee in comfortable and friendly surroundings. A place of that kind is badly needed in the winter evenings in our New Zealand towns, and would materially assist in counteracting the influence of the public house, which is the only place of social resort available now. Many of you, no doubt, know the story which Kowntree and Sherwell tell of the conversation between the bishop ot Stepney and a publican whom he happened to c >me across in hospital. The publican, on learning who the bishop was, enquired after several mern-Ix-rs of a men's club, established by the < >xford House Settlement, with which the bishop was connected. The Bishop asked how he knew them. “Oh.” he said. “ they were regular customers of mine before they joined your club. 1 bad a public house close by. “ Are you still there?” the bishop asked. ‘No, sir -, I’ve moved a little farther off. ’ Nor have I any doubt that if the Society decided to start such an institution it would meet with warm support and monetary assistance from many public and business men in this and other towns Actual prsctkal von of this kind does undoubtedly far more in the direction of influencing men than any amount of persuasive talk or argument. And it is men chiefly whom we want to influence. If we can do it by ministering to their comfort it is surely a Irettvr way than by “ boreing them with our arguments. In the long run I think we shall find that it is our practical work which is productive of the ls*st results, and I believe that if we systematical!" extend that, we shall Is* strengthening our position and weakening the enemy’s defences every dav.