ADDRESS PRESENTED TO THE ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE W.C.T.U.

White Ribbon, Volume 33, Issue 393, 18 April 1928, Page 1

ADDRESS PRESENTED TO THE ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE W.C.T.U.

(Elizabeth 13. Taylor, Presideut

Napier, March 22nd, lb 28. Dear Felloe Members, Once again we are privileged to assemble ourselves in Annual Convention for a review of the past, and a planning for the future. To many the year just closed haj> been a strenuous one, to others little more than a time of waiting. Some have known it as a year of uplift and vision, the opening up of glorious possibilities of service, to others it has seemed but one long struggle against insuperable difficulties —a succession of vexing irritations, baffling perplexities for ever besetting the path of progress. Little wonder if these have found themselves losing heart and courage, nay almost fainting by the wayside. The shining mountain tops of glorious realisation seem to glow too far off for them, the pathway to be too rough and steep for their feet to travel, and too great a test of their endurance, their faith and their purpose. The achievement of the end in view has lost its great spiritual significance and does not now appeal to them, as once it did, as being worthy the sacrifice entailed —they have lost the Inspiration of their first greet call to this field of service, and have perhaps forgotten meanwhile, as difficulties loom large before them, that the Kingdom of Heaven is from within, and that all material diffi-

culties will for ever vanish, burnt up in the white light ol spiritual strength, if we can lift our thoughts from ourselves and feed our souls upon eternal realities, accepting the power that tiows, for ever free for us to use. 'Po such weary' and discouraged ones, whether present or absent, we earnestly express the hope that this Convention, with its services of prayer and praise ami communion, will prove a season of rich blessing and gracious uplift—the opening of a fresh realisation of the nobility of our aims - -their value in the light ol Eternity—-the grandeur aud worthwhilen«*«s of the part we are allowed to take in the real uplift of lift* around us. May we all, every woman of us. try to learn what we really stund tor, and pray that we may he filled with the inspiration of a grand and great ideal worthy of a Hfo a undying devotion. May we hold fast to this inspiration. even when at times, to human eyes our work may look like so much wasted effort, too much like the lonely struggle of a few weak women against insurmountable odds and difficulties that defy our highest endeavour. Let us ever realise and remember as we pour out our hearts in prayer that “All things are poasibe to her that believeth,” and that wherever the Master leads He gives us “the light of life” to guide us, and tne strength of body’ and soul to follow. Within the ranks of the Union this year the list of those who have been called to higher sendee is not a long one, but many members have been

lindered from activity or laid aside >y sickness, age or family care*. lo ill such we tender our heartfelt lympathy, and pray that health and vigour may again be their portion, iod that many of them may be restored to their posts of duty during this Campaign year. We have, with sorrow, to record the passing of one whose blight selfless personality was alway’s an inspiration, both lo her own Union and to Convention. In the death of Miss Ruth Atkinson, both Nelson and New Zealand women have lost a friend indeed —her fearless intellectual outlook on life, and the deep spiritual foundation underlying it, made her an inspiration and blessing to all who knew her. Her faithful and kindly ministrations to all about her —friend and neighbour and the stranger within her gates—made her living a joy to her and a benediction to others. Her keen mind, her deep interests, her wide sympathies, and her generosity, »/ill long be missed, not only by this Union and all temperance friends, but by a very wide circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances, to whom she had endeared herself. Ashburton also has lost one of its oldest members, and for many years a very earn»*Bt worker, in the person of Mrs Kingston. One disconcerting fact which has to be recorded and also faced, is the state of the Organising Fund, which is in a far from healthy state, while ut the same time, we cannot claim to oe over-generous to our organisers in the matter of salaries. We have three fine young women at present carrying on this arduous and some-

times difficult, but altogether necessary piece of service for our Unions. Their travels take them, at times, far a held into the back-blocks and lonely places of New Zealand, often lacing hardships and doing vork that none of us may attempt—building up and conserving as nothing else can possibly do, the temperanc? and prohibition sentiment of our women and young people throughout this land. We all love and appreciate our Organisers, and therefore 1 would most earnestly ask that every one of us individually, and collectively as Unions should realise our responsibility for them, both financially end otherwise, and that every Union l ice up to its part and keep the fund in credit. Surely the labourer is “worthy of her hire," and it is not a fair proposition that the Treasurer should have to borrow from any other fund to meet the liabilities of this one. We cannot overestimate the need for keeping this work at the highest point of efficiency possible, and indeed, were finance available, six Organisers in New Zealand would nol be any too many. But when one hears of Unions giving away their hard-earned money to all sorts of outside organisations and starving their own departments of usefulness, one wonders where their loyalty to their own Union comes in and whether they have ever read the Constitution at all. In the Legal and Parliamentary field of our activities, you will see that there is little to report. In womens special interest Parliament has done nothing, but for this we cau hardly blame them—considering that the year before they gave us much that we had been years in the asking—so that if the questions of Women Police, Domestic Courts, The Age of Protection, etc., have found no place in the Councils of the Nation, a is largely because women themselves have made but little effort to push for poetical action. Probably they are rf>gfmg somew'hat upon their laurels, In preparation for more aggressive acMon next session, or tha* at the coming Parliam ntary elections. On the other h;nd. It must not be forgotten that s spite of pressure from many quarters, v® have again to record a failure of the Government

further to carry into effect the recommendations of the Report of the Commission on mentally-affected children. This is a most serious and altogether unjustifiable attitude on their part, and certainly should not be allowed to rest where it is. What is the sense in spending the immense sums that are being spent in the maintenance of the mentally defective and the mentally ill, delinquent and criminal, that T/e are spending and and doing nothing whatever to stop an ever increasing supply of these unfortunate people from being brought into existence. Why do we forever go ou dealing with results and taking no account whatsoever of the causes. Passing ou, we are happy to say that this year a forward move has been made by the appointment of Mrs Simons as Maori Organiser. Mrs Simons is to be congratulated upon the awakened interest in our cause amongst our Maori sisters in so many additional districts. In this connection also, our thanks and appreciation are due to the sisters of the various denominations, who have so readily and cheerfully helped our Organiser, and al«;o to Mrs Jones, Waikato District President, and Mrs Fulljames, Auckland District Maori Superintendent. Of all the varied activities of our Union that which assuredly fills us with greatest hope for the future is the work amongst children and young people. This year we really can rejoice over the fact that so much more has been done this year and is being done than in the past. The increased number of ycung children whose names are upon our Cradle Roll is a true cause for congratulation, in addition to which the interest in the L.T.L., Band of Hope and Y. Branch membership should prove a source of great encouragement, for the importance of this work in its bearing on the future of our movement, cannot be too strongly appreciated or overestimated. There can be no room for doubt that the freeing of Miss Catherine McLay for special work amongst young people was one of the best moves that the Union has ever made; and there is no lack of evidence to show that members of Adult Unions are realising as never before the deep

and paramount importance of youth education, and are doing all they cau to foster it. District Organisation as well as the possibilities of District Executive work are gradually, but only ver\ gradually, being understood and appreciated, and many District Officers are only now learning to realise their proper and very important place iu the perfect working out of the Union in New Zealand. This cannot h*too strongly emphasised, for until the District Executives throughout th< country are functioning as they should do, co-operation brtw'een all parts of our organisation will nevei be complete, nor shall w’e be capabh of doing effectively any big undertaking or plan of work requiring tincombined efforts of all our members. For example, take the petition for the two-issue ballot paper—we an justifiably proud of the fact that in the short time at our disposal w* succeeded in getting nearly 85,000 names on the petition forms, but tin other fact remains that there wenthousands of women left, who would gladly have Bigned it, had they had the opportunity, but that opportunit.v was never given them. Had th* thirteen District Unions been aliv* to all their responsibilities and effectively in touch with the officers and members of each local Union and had the local Unions been in close and sympathetic touch with th* District officers everywhere, it is a foregone conclusion that even in the short time we had, another 15,000 or 20,000 names might well have been added, thus making our petition far more worth while and impressive. That many Unions and members worked splendidly is well-knofn—all honour to them. We congratulate them heartily upon the result of their labours. At the same time, it is also true that Union members by the dozen refused to help at this important and critical stage, while many a woman, who is not a member with us. spent days and weeks securing signatures, travelling from house to house, many of them in scattered country districts —-to all such we tender our sincerest thanks, whLe at the same time w r ondering how much value some of our own women place upon the abolition of the liquor trad* , and how f much sacrifice of time and comfort they are really prepared to

;ive to thla cause. The year just closed has been perhaps a record one for practical community service amongst the Unions. In the reports you will hud a great record of work done. The relief of distress caused by unemployment has received a verj big share of attention. The Willard Home has been kept w« k ll forward, members apparently realising an obligation to t'\i» very tine undertaking. Southland District is to be very heard I y congratulated upon the completion and opening of the beautiiul Rest Rood's at Invercargill, which *hey did so much to finance and to organise and which are, at the request of the Council itself, managed by a Committee of the District Union. New Plymouth, too, is nearing the goal of its ambition in the opening of their Sailor’s Rest —them also we heartily congratulate. Our women of the W.C.T.U. have certainly not been idle this year in respect to helpful and devoted works of love. Many other community services have been rendered by Unions in their own localities—too many to enumerate here and all most valuable. May we venture to hope that a large measure of the same effort, so generously put forth for local needs, will this special year be put into work for the winning of prohibition and the campaign for the Poll. Passing on, there are two very important branches of our Organisation to which all too little attention has l>een given of late—l refer to the Peace Department and the Moral and Social Hygiene Department. We are, of course, fully Justified in concentrating most of our energies on the many and varied aspects of the temperance question, and the abolition of the Liquor Traffic, but, at the same time, we must try to remember that our Union and we, as Christian women, stand for all that goes to the making of a complete and noble Christian ideal in the Individual, the family and the nation and the race, and to this end we should not neglect these two Important ansi fundamental questions.

Unions are everlastingly calling out for something interesting and useful to do at their meetings, while there is so much still undone and so much that they do not understand. Surely inoie could be done for the informa-

tion and training of local members by the Superintendents of Departments. Is it not possible for each Union to have at least one letter or paper during the year on each of these great questions—so that they may know what the world is doing and thinking about them? They are such live questions, and both women and men are doing their utmost the world over to get people interested and educated upon them. In the Purity Department the need is constant and insistent, high ideals of morality seem to be slipping insensibly but rapidly from under our feet, not only where young people are concerned, bu' what is far more appalling, amongst people of mature years. \ The whole fabric of sex relationships and moral responsibility both to the individual and to the race, to say nothing of the Creator, seems to be trembling on its very foundations. No obligation to the individual or to the race or to the Creator Himself, seem to have power to stay the onward rush of materialism in this respect. It may be evolution, it may be even the birth of a newer and higher freedom, or it may be the beginning of the downfall of modern Christian civilisation. Whatever it portends it is for us to hold high the torch of pure ideals —-of Christ s own teaching—" The torch that lights Time’s thickest gloom,” and so help to bend and turn the spirit of the age towards a seeking for the highest and the best, the true and the real in man’s high destiny. What has be< n said of Purity may, to a great extent, apply to the Peace question, it may no 1 , be an easy matter for those of us, who have never thought beneath the surf tee of such things as national and international life —th* rights of other peoples and races besides o ir own—to take the broad and all-embracing view enjoined by Christ when He said, "Go ye into all the world and to every creature” to realise the possibility of worldwide co-operation and understanding between nations on a peaceful footing. The destructive belief in the power of protection by physical force may be In our very blood—the instincts of national pride and race superiority may be with many of us a powerful inheritance from the past, difficult indeed well-nigh impossible to over-

come, and yet there is cur plain duty in Christ's own words, and who are we to pick and choose which of His commands we shall oh *y, and which refuse. It may mean a hard and very bitter struggle for some of us to regard every woman as a sister and every man as a brother in God’s sight, and yet He demands of as nothing less than this, and nothing less than this will ever bring about an international public sentiment of goodwill for peace and co-operation in place of armaments and warfare. We, as women, have u double usponsibility in the common motherhood of all women and in our claim for the uplift of that motherhood tne world over. Someone lias written these wonderful words, which go to the very heart of the matter, and show what an outrage is war against the finest and the best in all the range of human joy and suffering. “By the cold frontier Hue of death 1 won my man-child. blood and breath; At a great price in gulfs of night Purchased the morning for his sight. And in a silence big with tear Fore wrought the enemies he should hear. "And you?—Ah, who si ould Know but 1 The wings of death that beat so nigh. The deathly dark, the deathly dews, Tiie soul that will not yet refuse, And all you risked and all you paid When out of you your son was made. "Your dead son and mine in love were bred Your son and mine in lute are dead, Yet never hated, never knew The sense of what they had to do. lint perished, brother slain by brother, Who might as well have loved each other. "Dear mother of a murdered son, Ours is the end by us begun, Ours is the strength the drums called up And ours it is to drink the cup Of childless days, of childless y*v\rs, Salt with the taste of blood and tears. "Dead we are foes or so they tell me— But In the wonder that befell me,

When solitary soldier, 1 Fought for the life so soon to die — When out of night I brought, 1 won, My morning star, my little son When at the utter risk and cost. “I gained the solace i have h*dWhen underneath m> oiK*ning ♦yes la4\ that which now all altered line When to my warm and passionate breast 1 held the limbs now cold in rest 1 knew one peace that shall not end, \nd every mother for my friend.” It is not my intention to go at any length into details of the national or International outlook, or the work of the women s great organisations in the world to-day—very much might be aa'd. But, with the exception of the W.C.T.U. and the Temperance Movement get*orally, we shall pass on. Our own Organisation, the pioneer of all unity of effort by women in modern times, continues its everwidening sphere of influence for uplift everywhere. Its motto, “For God and Home and Humanity,” stands for a wonderful and all embracing ideal, and one marvels at the rich heritage left by Its pioneers and founders--an ideal and a heritage, distinctly influencing to-day the lives of hundreds of thousands, nay even millions of women, where ever its banners unfurled and iu standards set up. It is to this giN.Ht and gloriois unity of women that we, of the W.C.T.U. in New Zealand, have the honour to belong, and may it ever be said of us that our best endeavour and ambition has been, to attain to the highest that our Union calls for the very highest possiole is there within the folds of its constitution if we have but the will to take it and make it our own. One by one the countries are coming within the scope of its influence, devoted women are going forth into many lands, as missionaries carrying its message of love and uplift in the spirit and footsteps of our great pioneer leaders, until it is literally true, that our little White Ribbon encircles the globe In half a hundred countries, and in over one hundred states is that influence known and felt, increasing with the years as they pass.

As a consequence .*i the fifty years’ work of the W.C.T.I. in con Junction with scientific research ami general temperance education, it is mom Interesting and distinctly encouraging to study f rom year to year the progress mad« in the great world wide co-ordinated effort that has resulted. This effort is now fast materialising into the building up of a public opinion that must ultimately sweep the liquor traffic from every country, that has at heart the true well-being of its individual and national life and character, and its progress in the march of civilisation. As the years of the century have passed, the wMiole attitude of thinking men and women has changed with respect to alcohol. No longer does it sit in the seats of the mighty as an indispensible remedy in illness and disease. Science has utterly condemned it as a deadly racial poison, and the greatest destructive agency tiie human brain and body can have to face or contend with, as a moral and an economic factor dragging ever downward the individual or the nation that may come under its influence. it siirds guilty to the full before the tribunal that man may devise. In the light of modern civilisation, iu the place and purpose of man's creation, and this high destiny, alcohol has no mission, no purpose, and no rights; it has been tried by the centuries and found utterly w anting. It is a world alive to all this that has evolved, and stands facing the future. The women, the Church, the social workers, the World League Against Alcohol, the World Prohibition Federation. Men of Science, the League of Nations, ail these and more are studying and facing up to this question, and there can be no doubt as to the ultimate verdict and the result, when once people have learnt to face facts honestly and courageously. Tampering and temporising with the traffic, in one form of control or another. State, Municipal or otherwise, stands only as an excuse for greater circumspection, under the guise of apparent respectability, while evils unknown before flourish under these systems. Greatly-increased drinking amongst women, and an alarming state of lowered public morality—in Carlisle

and elsewhere are some of the undeniable results of State Controllet tills sink deeply into our memories, and be made use of when our friends excuse their lack of responsibility by voting State Purchase and Control. That things are so especial ly tiie increased drinking amongst women is made abundantly cleat from the evidence taken before tie* British Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry under Lord Southborough. when one witness after another testi fled, to the great and increasing amount of drinking amongst women in Carlisle, and these women, mostl> young ones, many of them with children beside them. One of the findings of that Committee was, “That it does not appear that there is lees drinking in Carlisle under State Control, than in a number of other counties under ordinary icense.” So we must make it our business during the coming year to see that some of thoee who shirk their responsibilities by voting State Con troi. are made aw'are of the futility of the excuse they make for themselves. Another feature of the persistent education that has gone on through the years, is observable in this fact:Many countries, realising the very injurious nature of the effects of alcohol upon child life and youth, have passed legislation forbidding iU consumption by cniloren and young people—in many places this is rigidly and rightly so enforced. This is the case in Italy, Japan, Mexico. France, New Zealand, and many other places, and there are few countries where there is not an ag* limit as well as strong efforts to coi. troi and shorten the hours of sale. Take another indication of the changed attitude towards this question. One is surely justified iu regarding tiie league of Nations as a most important gathering, as an august assemblage, where time is not wasted in the discussion of matters that have but a temporary value and an interest that concerns but the few, Questions and affairs of small importance are rigorously banned from jits Councils. It is therefore very significant of what is afoot, when at the request of Finland, Poland an-1 Sweden, supported by Belgium, Den*

mark and Ciecho-Slovakia, the study of tli** Alcohol question found a place upon the Agenda of the l‘J-7 Assembly of the League in September last. True, it is that no discussion on the point raised took place then, but it is also true that the question was not dropped, but was referred to the second Commission of the Longue, thus showing that the most important gathering in the world to-day. cannot remain indifferent to this question and the importance of the disastrous part it plays against the moral, physical, intellectual and economic well-being of the life of the nations with whom it is concerned. As far as those nations and countries them* selves are concerned, it would take many pages to go into detail about them all. but a few facts are outstanding and worthy of our attention. Scotland —that vigorous comparer for the abolition of licensee has had an up and down experience of late years, and although she lost some of her No-License gains in lUL'fi, she still managed to hold and win enough to give her an Increase of twelve licenses closed down, and this in the face of the most frantic efforts of “The Trade” to “Administer” as they termed it, “a death blow to the Scottish Temperance Act.” T lis is noteworthy, as showing that temperance sentiment and education in Scotland is far horn dead or even dying. Surely our Scottish White Itibhon sisters are to be congratulated upon the great part they have played in bringing this about. Knitlanvl,.the Irish Free State (and most especially Lister I; France, (•ermany, Italy, all the Scandinavian countries as well as the reconstruct'd srates of Eastern Europe and even Turkey, are arousing themselves io ante sense of the importance of this question, and of the far-flung effect it is having upon national and individual life and efficiency. Iceland and Finland are still struggling to free themselves from the trade tyranny of the wine-growing countries of Europe, and to secure to themselves the full measure of Prohibition which is their right. Norway, we have loudly been told, has gone hack on her decision to abolish the liquor traffic. This however. is not correct, seeing that only wine and spirits were prohibited, not beer, and the half-measure was so

unsatisfactory that they have decided to go back to the obi regime. The efforts ol ail these countries, as well as of Japan. India. South Africa. Egypt and Palestine, Australia and the islands of the Pacific, to free themselves, or to win the means of freeing themselves from the tyranny of the liquor traffic, are themes full of the most intense interest and uplift, especially for us here in New Zealand, where at limes we are inclined to think only of our own long struggle through the years that have gone, and to forget that all the world is with us in that struggle, and is preparing itself to face and overthrow a giant evil, the like of which has never been faced in this world before. <*uy Hayler, President of the World Prohibition Federation says: “Wheretver there is poverty and unemployment, there is need for Prohibition. Wherever there is bad trade and miserable living conditions, there is need for Prohibition. Whenever there is an acute problem of depopulation, there is need for Prohibition. Prohibition will not remedy all present-day ills, but it will adequately meet the whole problem of the social and moral corruption of the nations consequent upon the use of alcoholic beverages. Whatever Its opponents may have to say about it, Prohibition is becoming more and more the v« ry deep concern, if not anxiety, of many statesmen, politicians, and leaders of labour and social groups; whilst the insistency of the proimgandlsts of sobriety is influencing Industrialists and employees not a little. Even the vine-growers and their associates in European wine-producing countries may. ere long, be proclaiming the merits of Prohibition. Very advantageously is the economic point of view showing up, and, without a doubt, there is a section of producers discovering a vantage ground of sound security and good business in the preservation of the apple and grape for other uses than alcoholic liquors.” In America another big fight will come on this year. Presidential Congressional- State and Municipal elections are to be fought, and in spite of all other great national and party questions which loom so large in the country, there is no doubt that Law Enforcement and the modification of tlie Volstead Acts will he some of the

biggest factors in the winning or losing of any position- and ♦•specially will this be so with the organised woman's vote. The National W.C.T.U. have already begun to ask for a declaration of principles by Presidential candidates. Listen to otir World President. Miss Anna (Jordon, who says: “1928 is ‘Presidential year in the United States of America. Once in four years our political parties struggle for supremacy in the executive leadership of the nation. The W.C.T.U., joined by a vast army Of ten million women voters in the Woman's National Committee for Law Enforcement,’ will vigorously campaign for the nomination and election of dry officials at the head of the government, in the 1 nited States Congress, in State Legislatures, and in municipal governments, As there are fifteen million more votes to-day than there were when prohibition policy for the nation was adopted, the educational campaign for a dry President is of supreme Importance. The dry forces with a few exceptions, will unite in an endeavour to secure from the party conventions which nominate a President and outline the policy of the parties, a declaration favouring strict enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment. Millions of voters greatly regret President Coolidg**’» decision not to accept nomination as chief executive of our republic.” Concerning this great country and Its bold experiment in state and Nation-wide prohibition, what is to be said? In face of the fset that numbers, even of our own supporters in New Zealand, see, and alas too often believe, ihe statements broadcasted by the liquor interests, assuring us of its failure in America; what are we to think, what can we do? Time and again these allegations ar** contradicted and refuted and denied in language that cannot be mistaken, and those most concerned do not see it. Why is it that these denials are so seldom seen or when seen appreciated? What is the psych olog.v behind the fact that temperance people, church people and prohibitionists. so often see the lie and so seldom its contradiction? Tan it be that we have so little faith In our own cause, that we are over sensitive to

every move of ereoiy propaganda, and overwhelmed with feai and concern that should not be ours? Is it that we have never gone amply enough into the reasons—scientific, moral and spiritual—for the faith that is in us, that we are tempest-tossed by every breath of auverse wind that blows. Are we working for a reform baaed upon a foundation so shallow and shifting, that it cannot withstand tiie assaults of an enemy entrenched behind nothing securer than a huge financial interest. Surely our cause lias something more of the univer. J and the Eternal laws of God in it than this. In speaking of the United States, it might be as well for us to bcr.r in Mind two facts, wherewith to enlighten some of those who do not trouble to enquire for themselves. Since 1020, when nation-wide prohibition came into force, there have been three Presidential and Congressional elections —and each time a national parliament drier than the one before has been elected. Not one of us is prepared to say that the Americans are a stupid people, or that they are not alive to their own interests. Moreover, we all know quite well, the liquor supporters included, that Americans are about the ablest economists and business people in the world, also that they have such a very high idea of their ow n efficiency, in their leadership in the world of business, of their own institutions and their own pockets, that anything detrimental to these interests is not tolerated longer than it takes to remove it. Therefore, it stands to reason, that if prohibition had been the dreadful and dismal failure that the wet interests in New York would have us believe, hard-headed American men and earnest American women w'ould long ere eight years were over, have done away wdth it. Put wh mi after the lapße of all that time, the 18th Amendment stands as firmly as ever—W’hen enforcement and not modification is the aim of each successive government, and win n, before the Senate, all pleas for alteration or modification fall on deaf ears, it looks as though prohibition had come to stay. According to the "American Issue” wet forces there and everywhere else are organising in deadly earnest,

and with a deadly purpose. Finding that they have now no hope of repealing the 18th Amendment or doing away with prohibition in this generation, they are planning so to influence and teach the generation to come, which has not known the open saloon, that alcohol is good, that its sale in some form is necessary, and through insidious and lying propaganda they hope to accomplish the entire overthrow of the forces for good, that in this generation have abolished the trade in alcoholic drink. In New Zealand, where now do we stand on this question—are we not at the dividing of the ways? Ahraliam Lincoln, that great soul and coble patriot, said: “With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed; consequently lie who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions—he makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.” is not the Licensing Pill of last year, as it left the Lower House, a reflection of that same public sentiment of which he speaks. And on this question in New' Zealand, it has seldom been more clearly voiced than in the following w'ords by Mr T. D. Purnett, M.P., for Temuka, and one of our leaders of the prohibition party within the Government ranks. “The day has long pa. sed w r hen the Prohibition element in this country w’as confined to the travelling lecturer. To-day, in all walks of life, the big land-owmer, the captains of Industry', the professional man, the social worker, the skilled artisan, and the ordinary labourer, have definitely decided that the tniiHc is too costly for this little Dominion. I have always voted Prohibition, not so much because I was persuaded that it would do ail that its advocates claimed for it, but because it is the next movement in the evolution of social betterment. I quite anticipate that there will he setbacks, but 1 am convinced that we will move steadily forward to a higher and better type of humanity. If I had not been an advocate of Prohibition before I would have been one this last three years, when daylight murder on our roads has »een so frequent owing to drunken motorists. There are thousand, of mothers in this country who,

when getting their children ready for school in the morning, are in fear and trembling that they should be brought home to them at night dead or mutilated as the result of the action of some drunken drivel's of a motor vehicle. I yield to no one in my allegiance to the Reform Party, or in my appreciation of the magnificent work that party has done for the Dominion; but wrhen firmness in a Prime Minister degenerates into obstinacy, and is cutting right across the expressed will of the people, I have seriously to consider my position in regard to the party and the Government.” Thirty-seven long years of education, organisation and unselfish service has it taken to bring New' Zealand to this last consummation of public sentiment as reflected in Parliament. We women have surely done our part in moulding that public opinion and bringing it up to the present point. But w’hat of the future? Dare we now stand still? Can w’p affc <\ to lessen one effort, or lay down one piece of work, however small? Nobly have our leaders, past and present, held our standard high and carri d it onwards, until now it stands firmly planted far within the enemy’s lii©**, and fain would those enemies call to us for quarter, for pause and pa/ley, and perchance foi a weakening of our advance, while they entrench themselves afresh to take from us our hardly won victory. Shall we women submit to this 7 Shall we sit back amongst the shadows, and allow' compromise with the liquor traffic without raising our voices in proteat? Surely never, while we have a voice to speak or a hand to hold a \ 3n. Why should we, fighting desperately “for the right to protect along Life’s treacherous highway,” the bodies and the souls of "thoae whom we have so loved,” w’hy should we give quarter or pity to the enemy at whose gates we have fought so long? A thousand times, NO! What can be done we must do to help our leaders in Parliament to maintain their splendid stand, to keep their re cord clean, and to be true to their pledges. Daily must we uphold them with our prayers, that the Lord of Hosts may be with them, for thelis is no easy part to play. The enemy

; s very unscrupulous and very powerful. ready to spend money like water to gain an advantage. We, therefore, if the Bill is introduced next session, must pray without ceasing, and use every means we are capable of to keep it as amended and make it law. Whatever may happen this coming session, we must still see to It at the next elections that a Parliament no less favourable to our oause is returned to power. This we can do, and surely must do. if we are at all alive to our powers and our responsibilities. Let every woman who claims to be a Christian, let every woman whose heart and brain abhors the evils of the liquor traffic, and every woman who loves the youth and childhood of this young nation, nerve herself to face the facts as they are, and then determine for their sakes to lay aside all party feelings and political preferences, in order to work and vote for the man, of whatsoever party, whom she knows to be straight and honest on this question. Unless we are prepared to do this during the coming year, we mast be prepared to take the consequences. Political action and unity at the last poll gave us the House we have now. the members of which have been tru o to their election pled"<*B. They are prepared to give us all we want, but have been thwarted by the action of the Upper House. They are still prepared to do so, but may find it impossible; therefore it remains for us to send hack to the House such another majority—men who will see to it that our cause receives the just treatment and the right of way to which it is entitled. There is also another aspect which we must keep steadily in mind: each time we have a poll we shall expect to win Prohibition for this country, and when we do, w'hat will be more necessary than a Parliament prepared to make and keep the laws of enforcement. Therefore let us. If we have never done so before, face our undoubted duty, offer no futile and selfish excuses. These children and young people nre ours; they belong to us by rights inalienable; wo* are responsible for them to our Maker. Each time that life was given to them, some mother of us plumbed the darkness and depths of suffering, and faced death.

that they might have life. Who, then, are the men of the liquor traffic that they should say we may not pass laws to protect our own. Oh! women, why should these men, in their greed and their arrogance, say to us, “We must and shall have your son. nay, even your Cal** daughter, for our victims. He may be your morning star, your little son; she may be your solace purchased at a great price on the cold frontier line of Death —that matters not to us —we must sell our goods, we must have luxurious homos, our families must walk in silken attire, our motor cars must be large and fine, our dividends must, at all costs, nay, even of human life itself, be ample and sufficient. We must have your young men and maidens to spoil and throw" aside. There are hospitals, asylums, homes end sanatoria, prisons and reformatories. in plenty for them when w’e have done with them. But we must he allowed t'j supply them with our poisonous commodity, even if Legislatures and Courts of Justice have to be suborned and corrupted In the process. We are more than ready to undermine the morals of a w-hole nation if we can but secure the youth of that nation to its downfall.” No individual engaged In the liquor traffic could or would face such an indictment, as this, and yet it 19 true —nothing is truer. And until we women realise it in all its ugliness and horror, and tht immense share of it that is ours, we shall never do our utmost to get rid of it from this land. Oh! friends, mothers and sisters and wives, let us pray as we have never prayed before, all through this Convention, all through this year, and all the years to come, that we may be consumed by the fires of pity and righteous indignation. for the sorrow and suffering—an so unnecessary—brought upon men and women and little children by this dreadful traffic. Lot us bow our herds in very shame that in the past we have done so little for the Master, Who has done so much for us. Let us awake to His call, so clear and so compelling, so full of love for us. and sorrow for the great burdened heart of the world. Let us wait conUnually upon the Spirit within us and without —the Spirit of Truth that is ever waiting to draw- our souls

upward and onward Into a vision and realisation of His purpose lor us in a world redeemed by love and sacrifice —a world made perfect only through love and by sacrifice. In line with His love and purpose our darkness will become as white light, our helpless pity will be transmuted into freedom and action, our impotent anguish will be burnt up in selfless giving. “We live in a vital Universe,” says Fosdick, “surcharged with creative powrer. If wo surrender to this power through spiritual communion, we shall find our strength in Him Who is in all that liberalises and uplifts, in all that humbles sweetens and consoles; we shall appropriate our heritage of fellowship with the Highest, and grow spiritually rich thereby, ably, calmly, and effectively to overcome all the fiery darts of evil that threaten to overwiielm our peace and our faith."