PUBLICAN AND PREACHER.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 14 March 1927, Page 2

PUBLICAN AND PREACHER.

SERMONS IN PERPETUITY. "TEMPERANCE IN ALL TfflNGS.'^ @ A paradoxical position has 'arisen in Bradford, England, where a hotel licensee has endowed annual temperance sermons to be preached in perpetuity at St. Stephen's Church Bowling. The man responsible, is Mr Albert Cowling. a well-known publican, whose hostelry has been icensed for 10 years, and has been in the hands of his family for over 70 ye2rs. The endowment fund, which totals £100, "has been handed ovei to the church authorities, and it is estimated that it will produce £5 a year, which will go to the vicar of the church as fee for preaching the sermons. There will be two each year at the rnorning and evening serviee on a given Sunday shortly before Easter. The terms of the deed provide that the preacher shall treat of "temperance in all things," and it is understood that the Bishop of Bradford (Dr Perownc) has acquiesced in the arrapgement. "Are not the sermons calculated to damage your business?" an interviewer asked Mr Cowling. "Not at all," he replied. "What we want in the public house is the man who will come and take a drink or two in a reasonable way and go out sober. People who get druijk are no good tc our trade. They are a nuisance on the premises, they are a nuisance in the home, they lower the- reputation of the business, and they endanger our licences." '