NO-LICENSE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2036, 26 September 1908, Page 2

NO-LICENSE

ill?.. BLACK AT PATUTAHI.

Mr. A. J. Black concluded Iris uoiliccnsc mission in this district with an address at Patutalii last evening. The lecturer said the no-license movement was not confined to tho Dominion of New Zealand, but was pulsating throughout every civilised community in the world. Mon spoke of tlio grand old days, but lie considered the days to come would bo brighter and bettor and grander than any that had passed. The liquor traffic was going to die hard. It was like an old man kangaroo, its hack up against a tree, but the no-license paii/ was tlio man with tho gun who was going to settle it once and for all. When they found the trade coming out into the" open the end was not far off. The trade had proved themselves past-niastprs in the art of guerilla warfare, hut public opinion 'had forced them to figlrt in the open. He believed the liquor trade would be soverely dealt with at the 1908 election. Tie had travelled through many of the North Island electorates, and there was a tone of encouragement such as had never been before. He believed that after next election they would have as many no-license electorates in tlio North as they had in the South Island. Tho no-licensc party did not expect to reclaim the drunkards, hut, "like Gough, they wore after the boys. They were not fighting this evil for what it had done in the past, but for what they knew it would do in the future, if -allowed to exercise its baneful influence. The liquor trade would not die the day nolicense was carried. Tho men who were licensed to sell liquor over the bar now; would probably sell it without a license then ; hut experience had proved that once the licensed bar was closed the root of the evil had boon uprooted. They had, during the past few days, seen a little of what tho trade was capable of doing. “I consider tho ‘Gisborno Times,’ ” tlio speaker said, “which bore the brunt of the fight, occupies in this district to-day a splendid position” If the people hold" the same principles as ho did, they would ho found supporting an out-spoken journal, which had made a fearles stand for truth, honor, anil right, and which had proved beyond the powerful influence of the liquor trade. In reply to questions, Mr. Black stited that lie considered there was a. hand in Parliament which was doing diabolical work in the adjustment of electoral boundaries. "Where an electorate was just about to -carry nolicense, a re-arrangement was made with the object of staving off tho reform, but neither legislators nor principalities, nor powers could stem the tide of no-1 icense which had set ill from one end of the colony to the other. The lecturer was frequently warmly applauded, and wasi attentively listened to throughout. Mr. Black leaves for Auckland this morning.