MR. J. P. ARMSTRONG A GOOD TEMPLAR.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 263, 21 March 1874, Page 1 (Supplement)

MR. J. P. ARMSTRONG A GOOD TEMPLAR.

(To the Editor of the Stas.)

Str—When I jchiei honorable body, " The Good Templars/' I was led to believe that, as a member, I am bound to discountenance the traffic in Btrong drink, in every form. You may judge of my surprise, then, last night (if one can be surprised at anything in New Zealand), when I Scfiifd xJrothei" JSeil, an officebearer high in the order, propose Mr. E. B. Cargill as a fit and proper representative of the people. M?- Oar gill bsisg an importer arid wholesale deale? in' - 1 " blue ruin." The sight almost took away my breath. Idm not quite recovered from the shock yet. No doubt, my nervous system is one of the finest, and my constitution rather delicate. But, sir does Brother Neil think it respectable and praiseworthy to sell intoxicating liquors by the hogshead, but both sinful and disgraceful to retail it in nobblers? Dots. the.quantity make all that difference ? Is the one business suitable for a gentleman, the other only for him who is anything bat a gentleman ? Perhaps so, but I confess that I am either too stupid or too ignorant to see it. In my simplicity I have long thought that it is a very great inconsistency, and a very great waste of time to be clip, clipping at the branches of the tree of evil—drunkenness—that is in our midst, while we leave the trunk and the root unnoticed and untouched.—l am, &c, John P. Abmstgng Stuart street' Dunedin, March 4.