The Premier and Prohibitionists.

Opunake Times, Volume III, Issue 107, 12 July 1895, Page 2

The Premier and Prohibitionists.

The Premier was to be pitied, says the Wellington Post, when baited as he was by temperance deputations, several members of which behaved in a most intemperate manner, making reckless and manifestly untrathfnl charges wholesale against all sorts of people who venture to think differently to themselves on the liquor question. The Premier is to be commended for the firm manner in which he met the deputations. He absolutely refused to be bullied, and in more than one instance turned the tables neatly and effectively on his assailants. This was especially the case in relation to a most improper question, amounting to a scarcely veiled threat, by the Rev Mr Isitt, as to abstaining from prosecuting Inspector Broham for alleged perjury if the Government would appoint a Commission to consider the conduct of the police generally. We have authority for saying that this suggestion was Mr Isitt’s own, and .had never been discussed or approved by the deputation or Convention; but that it should have been made only shows what a distorted, and, as regards the interests of society, dangerous view Mr Isitt takes of the law and the responsibilities of good citizenship. If Inspector Broham has offended against the criminal law he, of course, deserves to be punished as any one else would be. Nothing could be more improper than for the Government to shield him by any compromise. To do so would be to condone and compound for crime. This, however, from the ultra-temperance standpoint, which evidently is that all means are justifiable to attain the desired end, would only be a trifle. We do not agree with the Premier on all points in regard to the amendments in the Licensing Law which are required, but no exception can be taken to the firm and dignified attitude he assumed and maintained in the several interviews. He evidently had the best of the argument with his interviewers, and one of these, who was particularly careful to say nothing offensive to Mr Seddon when face to face with him, sought compensation for his judicious reticence by pouring forth at the meeting at night, in Mr Seddon’s absence, a perfect torrent of personal abuse of the foulest and most scurrilous character.