KING COUNTRY’S LIQUOR

Hokitika Guardian, 7 October 1927, Page 1

KING COUNTRY’S LIQUOR

PROHIBITION CONDEMNED. HAMILTON, Oct, 1. “T maintain that it would he better for all sections of the community for licensed houses to lie established in that part of the Dominion (the Ivmg Country) as in others so that liquor could he properly and decently sold instead of its being introduced wholesale, illicitly treated, and illegally sold, as it is at the moment.” This declaration is made by Bishop A. C. Cherrington, of the Waikato, in the diocesan magazine, when replying to the criticism directed at his expressed opinion that liquor should be legally saleable in' the King Country. “Everyone knows that licensed houses are well conducted and that the licensees are honourable men anxious that their honour shall be above reproach in every way,” says the bishop, “and everyone who knows anything at all if he is living in the King Country, knows that the condition of things is, to put it mildly, far from What it should he in this respect. The clergy, leading members of our church, and many others have all given me information which entirely warranted my saying what I said the other day, and warrants us as a church people in carefully studying the matter to see if we cannot do something to remedy the utterly undesirable stale of tilings at present existing. “ FETISH OF PROHIBITION.” ‘‘Of course one can see perfectly well what lies behind any opposition to the change which I have suggested. I am afraid it comes from no desire to be fair to the people who are living in the King Country, not from any real love of the Maoris, but from an exaggerated regard for the fetish of prohibition. This latter is, of course, another question altogether, and 1 shall do no more than briefly warn our readers against

it on tlie following grounds:— “(1) It is contrary to tho express teaching of St. Paul. See Colossians 11., 20 to 23. “ (2) It is Mnnichean in tendency and Manicheism was a heresy condemned by tlie Church in tlie third century.

“ (3). It is unmoral. Wo have the divine gift of freewill and except in the most extreme cases, such as our doing harm to other people, no one has the right to interfere with anyone’s gift of choice. Character is built up on choosing tho right, it being understood that one has the power to do the wrong. Take away tho power of the choice and vou destroy the moral fibre. (“INSOBRIETY DECREASING-” “(4) It is a retrograde movement. It is desirable that men should learn to do right, not because they are compelled to do so, but because they do not wish themselves to do anything else, and education is leading us that way. Insobriety is decreasing annually, as any worker in large parishes in the Old Country, and as any student of English literature is well aware.

“(5) No State has the right to frame laws which do not commend themselves to the good, that is the moral sense of the community at large. If it does, disaster is bound to follow.

“I commend what I have said, both about tho problem in the King Country and about prohibition, to the^ attention of our readers. Clear thinking and fair dealing are required with regard to them both.”