N.Z.W.C.T.U. 69th Dominion Convention PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

White Ribbon, Volume 28, Issue 1, 1 May 1956, Page 3

N.Z.W.C.T.U. 69th Dominion Convention PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

A \crse from the Scriptures says, “Happy is he that condemr.eth not himself in the thing which he ''.loveth, ’ so with this verse in our minds we will look at our work and the field of operation. vVe have reached another milestone in the history of our Union, and with gratitude to God, we lift up our hearts for the accomplishments of the past, which have brought us to this day and to this sixty-ninth Dominion Convention. There is an evil in our midst today, and a very subtle one it is. “Christian tolerance,” it is called but, alas, too often it is simply Christian apathy. Unfortunately, many who should be with us in our work have used this as a cloak to avoid coming to any issue with one of the greatest evils to the whole Christian Church. Today, the Drink Bill in New Zealand should awaken us to the peril in which we stand. £26.000,000 spent on drink by a population of less than 2i million people calls for both thought and action. Never in the history of New Zealand has there been such a need for men and women to take stock of our national position as there is today. The drinking of intoxicating liquor has brought us, morally, as a nation, to a very low’ level. Unhappily, delinquency among children and youth is attributable in many instances to a blind wilfulness and irresponsibility on the part of many parents, and often on the part ot the child itself. VVe must not forget, however, that delinquency and immorality among our youth do not afflict the majority, but the minority, and we must also remember that, unless checked at the sources, the scourge can engulf the majority. Going over the news as printed in our daily papers makes even the most careless of us aware that the evil in our midst lias been allowed to break down social good behaviour. Many men and women have expressed the belief that the delinquency of children is a reflection of the delinquency of the parents Such groups as Demo Gangs, Teddy Boys and the like would not have sprung up but for the lack of MORAL teaching and control in the home. A statement from a Police Sergeant that “children are vicious today” is borne out by the persistent increase in juvenile crime. One must conclude that the seed of such irresponsible behaviour lies in the lack of training ami lack of authority by the parents. Last year there was a move on the part of our Government to lower the age for marriage, as there was concern over the increase of illegitimacy ... If anything should have aroused public opinion, it should have been that contemplated move. To lower such a standard for the irresponsible minority should awaken us to lie peril which causes even a Government such g at anxiety. During the year I read that the pro" ,rt ; />n of alcoholics was seven to every public house i.i New Zealand; a startling fact, surely. Also ve have been told that there are 20.000 alcoholics registered in our land. One might well w'onder what the total would be if all the unregistered were added. Every day we read of the slain on our highways through drinking drivers, and we should remember that the mena.e on our roacU it not the drunken driver, but the moderate drinker. The drunken is usually too fuddled to drive, but our danger lies with the man or woman who boasts

(Given by Mrs. H. N. Toomer, Preuident)

that they are moderate drinkers. How long will it take the public to realize thr.t alcohol is a dangerous beverage; a poison deliberately produced for profit! The revenue received by the Government from its sale cannot cover the cost of its damage. Asylums, hospitals, the services of Child Welfare, Courts, Police, orphanages, gaols, all these and more are a levy on the State by the victims of alcoholic beverages. We read so much today of the so-called benefits of longer hours in New South Wales. In fact, this State is being held up as a pattern for ‘Vise” New Zealanders! We are assured that longer drinking hours mean less drinking, less inebriation, and many more blessings to the drinking fraternity, but what about the other side of the picture? It is said that since the later hours in N.S.W. there has been a difference in the character of its drinking—and this I quote: “The character of the drinking has changed, the evening drink is becoming much more of a family affair in which many of the new are women in beer gardens and lounges of the suburban hotels.” Is that what w*e really and honestly want in New Zealand? Family affairs where both parents, both sexes, can become addicts and swell the “already 20,000 alcoholics”? Let make no mistake about th*s, for beverage alcohol is not innocuous, as the brewers would have us believe, but it is a dangerous narcotic, a drink of which every glass holds a drug of the most terrible kind—a drug which attacks the higher nerve centres of the brain, causing disaster and, often times, death. The subtle suggestion that drinking has improved by becoming a “family affair" should be questioned by every right-thinking man and woman. * It is time that we awoke and faced up to this question with honesty. Science, “the God of this age,” has exploded for us the theory that liquor has any nutritive or social value, and has stated openly that it is a narcotic and a depressant which should be classed with all other drugs. The cocktail habit, where so many gather, has become a menace, especially to the young and unwary. The hostess who offers her guests nothing but alcoholic liquor is lacking in good taste and good manners, to say the least. Too often our youth are forced into imbibing alcoholic cocktails nothing else is offered, not even a glass of fruit juice or cold water, or a cup of tea. But far far worse than the everyday hostess is the Christian who flourishes a cocktail bar in the home. To him, I think the pertinent question will be a*ked: “Where is Abel, thv brother; his blood crieth to us from the ground?" Overseas Visitors \\ c often hear from overseas visitor', that t>ur liquor laws are antiquated. The major complaint seems to be the ft p.m. closing of hotel bars, bu* why the complaint is never quite clear to me, for we know that guests staying in our hotels are not restricted in regard to their consumption of liquor. It is possible to obtain as much as they desire in the hotel lounge, or some such place; also, all drinkers can take home as much liquor as they like, for there is no restriction imposed on this.

I do not know why New Zealanders have to be told by visitors how to consume more liquor. Strangely enough, so many come here and tell us of the benefits of Continental drinking, and yet fail to give the full true facts of the case. In France there are 22 alcoholics j»er 1000 of the population, and their child delinquency is traceable to alcoholic parents in three cases out of every ten. Traceable also from the same source is the fact that many young people in the early teens have the mentality of 8 to 9 year old children. We appreciate the fact that France itself is concerned over the inroads the liquor trade has made in that country, and that one of her Premiers tried to discourage the sale and to legislate against it. “Australians are probably the worlds biggest beer drinkers” was a newspaper caption 1 saw recently, and last week l read that 4,000 Australian teen-agers hysterically broke through the pqlice cordon and mobbed the American crooner Johnny Rav -ivitig him semi-conscious and in need of niedh :• Mention. Truly a nation reaps what it >«.'A u. .nrd-drinking i>opulation (and here 1 quote), "Every irian, woman and child drinks at an average r ate of 2\ ga»lons per year of the heady, potent local brew,” will show in the youth of its land . . . their god, an American crooner. A nation that boasts “that New Zealand wines :(*e becoming more popular," and also that more of its people arc wine drinkers, has nothing to commend it, for the money thus gained does not offset the moral tragedies of its victims. Signs of spiritual and physical danger should challenge a people to clean ujf and put its house in order before a whirlwind of e\il overtakes it. The Church should sound the strong clarion note of warning. Over the radio and by advertisement, this country is asked to support an industry which mocks at decency, releases passions, destroys home life, breaks the marriage vows, murders the innocent, and blasphemes a man’s own soul. As a Union, we must fight the liquor trade, because we believe it to be the enemy of the nation. Gambling It is said by some that gambling has now become Public Enemy No. 1. Certainly it has a strangle-bold upon this land, and when we realize that all forms of gambling cost this country an estimated £9S,O(X),(XX) per year, it should most assuredly make us ponder. An enemy that attacks the morality of a people will destroy that people as surely as will war!* The sin of covetousness is an old, old sin; but because it is hoary with age it is none the less vicious. Too, this craze for getting something for nothing has beer the cause of disastrous results in many a home Even the fac that a small raffle he for a worthy cause 4r»es nothing to make the gamble less unsavoury. From a national viewpoint this country cannot afford to waste its money wantonly. We are amazed at the insidious propaganda that urges young and old to place bets on almost every conceivable thing. When, on all sides, children are being brought up to see raffles, is it any wonder that there is no moral question raised in their minds as they grow up? Seeds sown in youthful hearts can blossom into tne fully grown gambling of tomorrow’. We are glad that the Government has made it illegal for a minor to place bets at the T.A.8., but who is to stop the practice of sweepstakes in shop and office ? A few weeks ago. a friend received

from England betting booklets for some football pool, and this effrontery amazed my friend. Apparently gambling pool promoters arc not blessed with either brains or courtesy. £9S.(XX),(XX) is a colossal sum for 2$ million people to squander. The tote claims an estimated £2S,(XX).O(X); offcourse,’ £20,0(X),00(); raffles (legal and illegal, hookmaking (illegal), another estimated £S(),(XX),(XX). We are constantly hearing murmurs for football pools, or a state lottery to be licensed. It is interesting to read what the House of Commons, in England, had to say about gambling, and here I am quoting: “No method of raising money appears to your committee so burdensome, so pernicious and so unproductive.” It is well-known that gambling fosters crime, particularly that of embezzlement. For a Christian to partake in gambling is an annihilation of their trust as stewards of the House of God, and as one Minister rightly puts it, stretch of the imagination would ever conceive it possible to gamble to the glory of God.” Thou shalt not covet is a divine law and principle and it is woe indeed to any nation or empire .bat a-'empts to build on such a rotten foundation. Moral Reforms It is good to know that, as an organization, vve are still at work fighting for moral reforms. Regarding contraceptives, we are still working to make the sale to juveniles illegal, by confining the sale of this commodity to pharmaceutical chemists only. We are glad to know that the sale to juveniles has been made illegal,*but the law as it stands falls far short to be any safeguard to the young. It is no secret' that contraceptives are sold from all kinds of places, including booksellers, confectioners, bicycle shops, fruiterers, tobacconists, rental car establishments and others. It is well nigh impossible for the police to catch offenders trafficking these to our children and our youth. There is only one way to. safeguard them, and that is to have the sale restricted to one source only—the chemist. As a Union, we are grateful to the Government, especially the Transport Department, for the strenuous efforts that they have made to have our highways made safer for the travelling public, and for their courteous hearing of the various social reforms vve have laid before them, but we are sorry that it takes a Government so long to accede to vital requests. As women, we have a right to safeguard our children, and vve do not consider that there should be -any hesitancy over the contraceptive question. This calls for immediate action. We thank God for every move in the right direction. We may nut wholeheartedly support the view by a medical gioup that alcoholism is a disease, but vve welcome any attempt to force home the truth that beverage alcohol is a dangerous commodity and should be classed as tin* dangerous drug that it is. In conclusion, I would remind you of the World W.C.T.U. Convention which is to be held in Bremen, Germany, in June of this year, and to which a number of our sisters are journeying. We are an international organization, having Unions in 70 countries of the world. We hold a seat on the Non-governmental Department of the United Nations, being considered worthy of this honour owing to our wade social and welfare programme. I trust you will all seek to bring before women's groups, especially Church groups, our wide plat-

form, embracing many fields of social welfare. We need women as never before, to come in to help by the force of numbers as well as persuasion, to hr ; rg before the people of our own land the need for Temperance and a return to a “rightness” of living. We are Christian women, thank God, and we are old-fashioned enough to believe that a God-honouring people are a happy people. We may have money and food in abundance in this land, hut by themselves both of these mean nothing. Naiions are only great according to the sum of their spiritual values, and “Happy is that man (or nation) who condemneth not himself in the thing which he allowcth.” And so I close. We do not know what future holds. There is trouble on all sides Atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, the threat of Communism —a mad dance on the stage of the world. Scientists, educators, preachers are all warning men and nations. What can save iivi' It is so simple! A return to God, whose worm this is, an obedience to His laws, which govern the Universe, and the remembrance that “righteousness exaltetli a nation.” We will take up our work, remembering our Pledge to ‘remove the stumbling blocks of evil out of the wav of those who have been made weak. “For God, for Home, and for Humanity” we will go forward.