BISHOP GRIMES AND THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14971, 19 May 1914, Page 5

BISHOP GRIMES AND THE LIQUOR QUESTION.

«6 THE EDITOK OF "iHT rKESS." i I *' —l am a New Zealander born and r£w' + and X count ifc no mean birth " f'gnt to bo a shareholder in the public interests of this fair land. My father a . n ,-f-"- sttma n, and*l hare stron:ties --Tth that which concerns the people oiliis country, which brings mc to my point. I sco numbers of my father's Untl Tinen in this land, and believe that those numbers are proportionately increased in the old Homeland, who are handicapped in their callings, as. in tlieir religious and best social oondstions, by old customs promoted and extended through the easy accessibility of tho liquor bar. Another Irishinu'/, Grimes, in dealing with his | Holiness tho Pope's reported anti-alco-hol declaration, would seem to overlook the fact that so many of our people proceed from moderation into grave and even beastly excess. lie is. no doubt, a perfectly sincere and intelligent man, deepfv interested in his people's welfare. ;*but. 1 fear, must be too busy to have given due thought to this matter. First he confined his concern to the term "temperance," a term very vague now, and applied personally, alike by the '■moderate," the prohibitionist, "and the immoderate drinker, and therefore etymologicall.v useless in this controversy. But, Sir. the report used the term •'anti-nlcohoF' also, as though tho wholo crusade against intoxicants had the approval and actual support of the Papacy. (In Canada and the United States a number of bishops are openly fightiiiE liquor.) If that be correct, and I see no other reasonable interpretation, I'm afraid that tho Bishop's words as reported are in direct antagonism to the attitude of the head of his denomination; and for this reason: Wo all know with what avidity the pro-alcohol party seize upon such utterances as made by Bishorv Grimes, to nullify, as far as possible, such utterances as those reported of the Pope.' We all know also what authority is accorded by priest and people to such statements coming from their Bishop, and that unless withdrawn or shown to have some other moaning than that apparent, thousands of Catholic votes, this next election, will be cast for the Bishop's interpretation, against the plain meaning of the Pope's statements. The Bishop's attitude is contrary to the clear _ statements of eminent medical invostigatois of.the present most advanced age of analytical research. These aro absolutely opposed to any usage of alcohol as a beverage; and the authorities oil insanity, pauperism, crime and divorce, in fact of our grratest social evils, are agreed in sheeting home to alcohol the main responsibility for these existing conditions. Is it a small thing for a leader whoso smallest word is practically binding on so many thousands, to so'definitely, if indirectly, give countenance to such a monstrous evil ? However, the Pope is himself in accord with the anti-alcohol movement.— Yours, etc., J A .MRS THOMPSON. Darfield.. May Isth.