AN ECHO OF THE ANGLICIAN SYNOD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2514, 5 December 1922, Page 1

AN ECHO OF THE ANGLICIAN SYNOD.

STRONG WORDS ABOUT PROHIBITION. SELF-RESTRAINT BETTER. Many pople are under the quite erroneous impression that the last Anglican Synod expressed itself as unanimously in favour of Prohibition. As a fact, widely divergent views were expressed, many of which revealed abhorrence of a coercive and un-Christian measure. The Rev. Jasper Gaidar said: “1 have coiue to the conclusion that is far better for a man to lie a Christian than a Prohibitionist. The former allows him to continue to be the free agent he was born, and to exercise and allow others to exercise their free wills; but the Prohibitionist does not believe lemptatons are part of the battle of life, and help to make real men. The Prohibition attitude is characteristically safety first. However, it is a fact that the great majority of New Zealanders —hundreds and thousands —are moderate drinkers and are they going to say that drink is an evil because a few disgrace themselves and others 7 I do not think that this country could be prohibited. Prohibition would merely

prohibit the moderates and not the verv class —the abusers ol liquor —that it is designed for. None ol the advocates of Prohibition have put forward any constructive ideas, or one suggestion or device towards reform. That is because they are not after reform, or to teach selirestraint or self-control. 'I hey ignore all Christian methods and even the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their gospel is .just Prohibition, which is fundamentally, ethically, and morally wrong. The sooner we wipe out Prohibition the sooner reform will he accomplished.” The Rev. Gordon Bell said, inter alia : “I can tind nothing in the Bible that favours Prohibition or its supporters: whose opinions, if followed to their logical conclusion would indict God and Jesus ( hrist, who drank and made wine, about which the Prohibitionists indulged in all sorts of quibbles. Wine was wine as it was known then and now and used for sacramental purposes. The Englsh people are broad-minded, end there is no chance whatc\ er of Prohibition ever getting a hold in the Old Land. I should bewail the fact if New Zealand followed American hysteria rather than commonsense.’’ The Rev. Grant Cowen said he did not like the principle of Prohibitum There, then, in the considered opinion of Anglican divines, is weighty evidence against the Prohibit ion forces. Spoken in open Synod, these opinions must carry weight. Vote Continuance. Bb>.