RATIONAL LIBERTY AND TRUE TEMPERANCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1237, 20 September 1911, Page 6

RATIONAL LIBERTY AND TRUE TEMPERANCE.

SHOUT PAPERS IN DEFENCE OF REASONABLE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL LIBERTY AS AGAINST PROHIBITION. (By Professor Saluiond, D.D.) Prohibitionists are fond of 'adducing statistics, from no-liccnso areas.as exhibiting tho reformatory ctlicacy of their favourite moral remedy. They-generally overlook the most remarkable example; but I find it recorded in a recent number of tho "Tribune," and it will bo read with interest and astonishment:—

There is a community where prohibition prevails, and tho conditions thero are such as to make tho electors weigh their votes at the forthcoming elections. It is an ideal prohibition locality, (here being no secret drinking, and the importation of liquor from without is prevented by rigid barriers. Tho residents are orderly, crime is unknown, and iho air of quietude is charmingly in contrast with the bustle in localities whero there are hotels. The community is guided by a few simple rules. ' There is no immorality. Everyone is educated. There are no dobts, and no quarrels, and consequently no courts. The few guardians pf the peace have nothing to do. Everyone is well dressed and well fed. No curfew bell is required, because all tho residents retire at an early hour. There are no idlers, and no absentees from worship. None need have any thought' for the morrow. Occasionally, though rarely, an unruly one goes away, but he invariably returns to renew the peaceful and regular lifo he has thoughtlessly abandoned. Where is this ideal- community, you ask, whero the exclusion of liquor can bring about such happy tcsults? My answer is: "In jail."

This example is arresting and instructive. It can no longer be denied that prohibition prohibits, nor questioned whether it is an efficient social remedy. Only givo us enough of it j let tho walls be sufficiently high and strong; multiply bolts, bars, handcuffs, batons, and policemen; carry it out with a hand high and imperious enough, and, jo! what a moral transformation scene! The lesson is maniiest. Only make New Zealand a huge jail, with tho encircling sea lor prison walls, and we shall see Paradise restored. We have at last discovered the gospel of the redemption of humanity. Tho clergy themselves confess that prohibition will do more for mankind in' seven years than they have done in a thousand, and they arc, therefore, agitating for a release from the irksome and useless business of preaching tho Gospel that they may peregrinate the country in order to preach the gospel, of bolts and bars and magnify tho works of tho law. Unfortunately, when we get over our first impressions and look moro narrowly, certain doubts seize the mind. The niisoKEHS, in tho stern hands of tho prohibition jailors, gesticulate well, and move with the utmost moral propriety; but it is to be feared that tite men are no better, and remain a collection of depraved scoundrels. Prohibition has made clean tho outside of tho cup and tho platter. It has swept the floor and garnished tho walls of the. house. It has done no more, and never will do any more. The clergy had better, after all, stick to tho Gospel of Christ's royal Jaw of liberty, and not abandon faith in the weapons of the spirit.

There is another difficulty. Tho jail works its reformation only by means of tho ntinost.stcrnncss and by carrying prohibi-' tion to the uttermost lengths. If wo are goin? to reform New Zealand by jail methods, we must do likewise. Weak measures and half measures will not suffice. It. is to be feared that our new reformers do not realise the magnitude of tho task they arc undertaking. AVc must havo armies of officials, spies, and informers; a thousand prying eves at every port; a host of iirgus-cyeil polio; (o copo with the enJless ingenuities of men's ini. 'luity, sharpened by the coi\sciou*n"s'! nf waging n rishfeous war airains{ (ho arbitrary infraction of natural rights. ](; ; s only when the law has been proclaimed that tho difficulties mil begin. It is { 0 bo feared that tho law can never bc> enforced: for Xew Zealand ennnot bo eonverted into a jail.—"Otago Wilnpss." «■