REGULATING SOCIAL EVILS
LABOUR PARTY’S ATTITUDE
MR JUDKINS COMPLAINS
Speaking of morality at yesterdays pleasant
Sunday afternoon meeting
at Wesley Church, Lonsdale-street, Mr WH Judkins said that a bill
had been brought
before the State Parliament to clear our streets of the vice that now
flaunted itself
there. To the shame of the Labour party of Victoria, that party
was opposing this
measure. All sorts of bogeys and impossible cases were being
quoted against the
bill. Mr Prendergast and Mr Elmslie, of the Labour party, had
spoken of him (Mr
Judkins) as having made remarks about our public parks and as having
good intentions, but
lacking discretion. Well it was something to have a criticism from
such an acute
mind as Mr Prendergast’s. (Laughter)
A Voice - Have you ever said in public that the
parks ought to be
closed at 8 o’clock at night?
Mr Judkins - No. He had never said such a
thing. He had
said that he did not approve of the parks being closed at night.
(Applause)
What he did think was that the parks ought to be thoroughly
lighted and under
such police supervision that there could be no acts of immorality and
wrong. Mr
Prendergast and Mr Elmslie has attributed to him words that he had
never used.
A Voice from the gallery. - Is not immorality
indulged in sometimes in
churches?
Mr Judkins. - If you know that you are not
doing your public duty
in not speaking about it. If you are aware of such things you are
a mighty big
coward not to say so. (Applause)
A Man at the back. - Why don’t you give the names of
the
Government supporters, too?
Mr Judkins was conducting this meeting in precisely
the way he thought
best. (Applause) He had mentioned the names of members of
the Labour party
because that party more than any other political party professed to
stand up for social
uplift. (Applause) He did not know that the present State
Ministry had ever made any
pretensions in that regard. When it came to moral questions,
where was the Labour
party? It had been repeatedly said that there were more
temperance men in the
present Federal Labour party than there had ever been in any other
party. Why then did
they not “deliver the goods?” What was the use of calling oneself
a
temperance man and putting one’s hands behind his back when the
opportunity came to
strike the blow? They were ashamed of what was being done, or not
done, in the
Federal Parliament on the liquor question. When the opportunity
was given to vote on
the liquor question the Federal Labour party did all it could to shelve
the question and
to push a decision away. It made one wonder regarding the future
of any party which
dealt so with moral questions. He moved:-
“That this meeting supports the State Ministry in
its endeavour to
amend the Police Offences Act in order to clear the streets of our
cities of undesirable
persons.”
The Rev H Worrall seconded the motion, which was
adopted with
acclamation.
From THE ARGUS 26th September 1910 page 11
