"THE REV. GIBSON SMITH ON ALCOHOL."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1248, 6 October 1911, Page 6

"THE REV. GIBSON SMITH ON ALCOHOL."

Sir,—Under tho above heading you publish in to-day's issue, what purports to bo an account of my views on tho NoLiccnso question. 1 ask your iwrnission to say, lirst, that this statement of my opinions w.as in no way authorised by me; secoiiid, that the utterance referred to must be something like seventeen years old; third, that it was not mado in tho First Church, Invercargill, but in a public hall at -a meeting of the temperance party. My object in making the statement was to enable the members of that party to understand that although I was ready to support the No-Liconso movement, yet the grounds cm which I was prepared to advocate it differed considerably from those lield by tho extreme members of the Prohibition League. I believed then, mid I believe still, that it is not necessary to bo an extremist in order to bo a rational supporter of tho NoLicense movement. Apparently the NoLicense party were not displeased with my plain-speaking, for some years later they asked me to lx> their spokesman at a great public meeting held in the Theatre, in answer to similar meetings hold in the liquor interest by Mr. Dugan, M.L.C., of Melbourne, and to this request I willingly consented. I still beliovo that No-License even if entirely triumphant will not bring in the millennium, nor even furnish a permanent; settlement of tho liquor problem; and yet I still support tho No-License movement as being the only practical proposal at piesent before the country that furnishes a reasonable hope of very considerably lessening tho manifold ovils caused by tho drink traffic. I shall not endeavour to characterise tho tactics which would endeavour, bv the suppression of essentia) facts, to represent a consistent supporter of No-License as ono of its opponents.— I am, etc-, J. GIBSON SMITH. St. Andrew's Manse, October 3, 1911. [Tho Rev. Gibson Smith's letter refers to an advertisement published in our issue of October 3.]