CHAPTER XXXIX. T E M P E R A N C E A N D TEETOTAL SOCIETIES.
SYNOPSIS.—Inauguration of the Port Phillip Temperance Society.—Formation of the Total Abstinence Society.— Teetotalism Explained.—Mrs. Dalgarno Lectures Against Intemperance. —The Temperance Hall—Bishop Perry not a Teetotaller.—Formation of the Philanthropic Total Abstinence Society and the Salford Unity. —The Victorian Father Matthew Society.—" Emerald Hill"—The Origin of its Name.— Total Abstinence Convention. —The Founding and Opening of the Father Matthew Hall.—Its Final Dissolution—Formation of a Rechabite Lodge.
- N 1837 Melbourne was visited by James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, members of the
Society of Friends from Hobart Town, and this brace of worthy Quakers were the pioneers of the many praiseworthy efforts made in the colony to stay the progress of intemperance. Even at that early date, '^k and amongst a population numerically small, the evils arising from an excessive indulgence in intoxicating liquor began their baneful effects, and the two individuals named decided upon an attempt to arrest the spread of a plague which, like Milton's Moloch, might be truthfully depicted as, -"besmeared with blood," Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears.
On the 15th November they inaugurated THE PORT PHILLIP TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.
Being warmly supported by the Superintendent (Mr. Latrobe), the Rev. James Forbes, and others. They made a gallant beginning, and the Society pushed on its good work under many difficulties. Very little is known of its infantine proceedings, and thefirstprinted notice I have been able to find on the subject is a brief record of a meeting held on the 29th October, 1838, at the Scots' School, Eastern Hill. This was the first anniversary celebration, and addresses were delivered by the Revs. James Forbes, and William Waterfield, thefirstPresbyterian and Independent Ministers. T h e Annual Report was submitted, and the prospect was the reverse of encouraging. In seven months there had been imported into Melbourne upwards of 2000 gallons of rum and 1500 gallons of brandy and gin (not so bad for a population of 3000 persons), on which the duty alone amounted to £(ao. T h e document concluded with the prophetic enunciation, "That the meeting was assembled at a place likely, at no distant day, to become the Capital of an important Dependency of the British Crown, which m a y eventually become an influential Province of a mighty Empire." Another meeting was held in the same place on the 26th March, 1839, the Rev. W . Waterfield presiding. O n the motion of the Rev. J. C. Grylls, thefirstEpiscopalian Minister, seconded by Mr. Robert Deane, Solicitor, a resolution was passed, " Declaring the use of ardent spirits for any other than medicinal purposes as altogether unnecessary, and injurious in many respects ; and it would be highly beneficial in every society were it discontinued." It would be well for the same Mr. Deane if, in after years, he had adhered to the spirit of this dictum; but so far from doing so, he recognized the use of ardent spirits to such an extent that it ruined him professionally, and subjected him. to the animadversions of Judge Willis in open Court. O n this occasion Messrs. Waterfield and Forbes delivered very effective addresses. Archdeacon Jeffries, of Bombay, w h o was on a brief visit to Melbourne, lectured on the "Evils of Intemperance" to a crowded audience in the Scots' School, on the 18th December. In 1840, the Society assumed larger proportions, and it was thus influentially officered •—
