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Australia 1892
From The Vegetarian Messenger (Manchester, England), February
1892, pp52-53:
Australia Advancing. - We have received some welcome letters and news
from the Antipodes. Mr. Thos. Lang, formerly hon. sec. of the Australian
Society, in a pleasant, chatty letter, says: "Our mutual friend,
Rev. J. Higgins, took tea with me last night. I almost hugged him in
my arms, I was so glad to see him. He is a kind, sensible, tolerant
man. We both congratulated ourselves on the progress made by the Vegetarian
Society of Australia since we started it. We both feel that we are shut
out to a certain extent by the younger and more energetic workers, but
that was to be expected, and we are both pleased to see the movement
carried on by such good hands. I am only 76 last birthday, but am sorry
to be removed so soon from the many important movements that are at
present troubling the face of human nature."
It is but a short time since we received one of Mr. Higgins' genial
letters, with a request for further supplies of literature, which he
delights to read and make his own, and then pass on to others. He was
the first president of the Australian Society, and, like Mr. Lang, is
very warmly interested in the welfare of the movement. He says:- "
There is considerably more willingness in these parts than was some
years ago to hear and read about Vegetarianism. Many of my acquaintances
have diminshed their proportion of flesh food. Doctors have taken up
the cry, 'Don;t eat too much flesh!' In the interior, I fear, however,
many, and even the very young, still devour much flesh. Among our colonial
animolies is one which some of us are very anxious to have recitfied.
There is a superabundant amount of most excellent fruit grown up country,
a large proportion of which goes to loss, or worse than loss, it is
used to feed pigs. Quantities literally rot for want of being picked
off the ground under the trees. That the growers neglect them because
they prefer to eat mutton, pork, &c., is not the worst. When asked
why they do not send them to market, they say it would not pay - price
low, carriage high - and yet in Melbourne fruit is so dear as to be
an expensive luxury. The middleman stints the grower, mulets the consumer
- preys upon both. This has been exposed in the newspapers. The retailer
in town finds his advantage in keeping fruit scarce and dear. Turning
over such small quantities at large profits suits his purposes. I hope
all this will be changed ere long. Prejudice and politics hinder reform.
It is good, however, to have some of the prominent doctors advising
more fruit and less flesh."
Mr. Robert Jones, who has succeeded the Rev. John Higgins in the office
of president, sends a few lines to let us know how they are getting
on: "We have during the last six or eight months been visiting
debating and temperance societies, giving addresses and conducting debates,
and have thus disseminated our principles far and wide. We get a new
audience every time, and, of course, have nothing to pay for hall. This
saving enables us to distribute gratis a good deal of literature - seed
which will some day produce its harvest." Mr. Jones added to his
numerous duties during the past year the task of preparing the examination
papers for the competitive examination in temperance physiology, arranged
by the large Total Abstinence Society in Melbourne, and in recognition
of this service has been elected to the honour of life membership of
that influential organisation. Good for the Vegetarians!
Miss E. A. Jones, the present honorary secretary of the society, sent
with a letter two papers, one containing a leader on Vegetarianism,
supporting our principles fully. The other paper, Health and Home,
will include among other items a page of Vegetarian information in each
issue. In her letter Miss Jones says:- "Our society is not very
strong, numerically, but I am continually receiving letters from people
either asking for information or expressing their sympahty with the
cause." Referring to the people who have attended the the meetings
they have been holding she says: "Amongst them we had a great many
opponents, but we also had a great many sympathisers, the majority of
the former even allowed that, as a nation, Australians eat a great deal
more meat than is beneficial. A good deal of interest in the subject
has been awakened by the debates."
We may congratulate our Antipodean cousins and ourselves on the decided
advance that has been made over the years in the intelligent interest
given to the question. And to our congratulations we add hearty good
wishes for the continued success, and bid them in their own words, "Advance
Australia." - Joseph Knight [Vegetarian Society secretary]
From The Vegetarian Messenger (Manchester, England), June 1892,
p187:
Melbourne Vegetarian Society. - From the annual report of the Vegetarian
Society of Melbourne [sic - this is surely still the VegSoc of Australia,
based in Melbourne, with the British editor getting a little confused
now there was also a NSW VegSoc...] we learn that the experiment
proposed last year of abolishing all the offices except those of secretary
and treasurer has worked well. The hope was that more of the members
would take an active part in the affairs of the society if no one were
held specially responsible. The result has been that several members
who had not previously taken part in the work of the society have presided
over meetings, and have given addresses. The Melbourne society has recently
altered its plans of operations somewhat. Instead of holding monthly
meetings of its members, it meets only once a quarter in the city, but
sends out its active members to various debating and temperance societies
in the city and suburbs, to deliver addresses and conduct debates on
food reform. It thus succeeds in securing a very wide dissemination
of the question. The balance sheet of the society shows an income of
£18 1s. 1d., and a expenditure of £16 15s. 9d.
From The Vegetarian Messenger (Manchester, England), July 1892,
p215-216:
Victoria. - At a meeting of the Vegetarian Society of Victoria [sic
- the editor seems to be even more confused], held in the open air
on the eastern shore of Prt Phillip, on 12th March, 1892, under the
chairmanship of Mr. Robert Jones, Mr. B. S. Hassell, formerly of Ballarat,
and now of Kent, Emgland, was elected as honorary member of the society.
Mr. Hassell became a Vegetarian some twenty years ago, acting on the
advice of his friend Professor Newman.
From The Vegetarian Messenger (Manchester, England), November
1892, p339:
Victoria.- Mr. Thomas Bury ("Tom Touchstone") writes from
Ballarat, 29th August: " I get the Vegetarian Messenger
regularly every month, and I find it very useful and interesting. We
have started a Vegetarian Society here and are making arrangements for
a Vegetarian restaurant. Numbers of the people seem to be losing their
old hankering after the flesh-pots of Egypt, and are going for Egytpian
lentils instead. I sincerely hope the good cause is advancing in Great
Britain, for food reform is the foundation of all reform. A man can
reform his own diet without an Act of Parliament, but he cannot so reform
the land laws and labour customs etc.
From The Vegetarian Messenger (Manchester, England), November
1892, p339:
Australia. - The Vegetarian Society of Australia held a public meeting
in the new Vegetarian restaurant, Russell Street, Melbourne, on August
18. mr. John Dun delivered an address in criticism of dietetic reform,
advocating a diet of fruit and nuts, "which contain all the elements
of nutrition and leave no injurious effects behind." A letter was
read from Mr. Hassall acknowledging the compliment the Society had paid
him by electing him an honorary member.
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