PROHIBITION AND THE MAJORITY.

Otaki Mail, 19 February 1919, Page 2

PROHIBITION AND THE MAJORITY.

To the Editor. Sir, —With your kind permission T would like to put the case of Prohibition before the electors as I see it. No man or woman outside a lunatic asylum is going to advocate the use, if abused, of anything that in any way interferes with the progress or uplifting of the masses of the people. Now, Mr L. M. Isitt', member for Christchurch North, was, prior to Iris advent as a member of the House, the recognised secretary of the New Zealand Alliance, and no just, straightforward man or woman can say he has acted as a member in accordance with the vietvs he expressed prior to his advent its a representative of tlic people. There is one thing that will secure his defeat at the next general election, and that is his e.ttiudc to the Protestant Political Association. . He pretends to be a follower of the lowly, meek Jesus, and yet be dom traced in the House a man whoso shoes he is not fit to clean. In retiring from the position of secretary to the New Zealand Alliance his mantle fell upon the shoulders of the Rev. J. .T. Dawson, who is getting a large salary and travelling expenses, and while screaming temperance he hopes that it will never be carried. No man or woman, looking at him, but would recogniso him at once as a man who is well supplied with all the ercature comforts known to man, and yet, forsooth, this individual is allowed through the apathy of the masses to dictate to them what they shall eat end drink.

If this so-called National Government is going to get a further extension of its occupancy of the Government benches it will give tlie electors of this Dominion an opportunity of saying whether the liquor traffic shall continue or be swept off the face of tlie C!lr,h! a- L.SW; Personally T do not care one jot which way it goes, but I do say, and I say it loud, that the electors should decide the matter.

Tn this matter it is tlie majority that is trying to rule, and that must not be allowed, cither on this question or any other matter that so vastly concerns the people.

I could say a lot more as regards the Tes-Eo policy of the Government; but as I am desirous of avoiding imprisonment under that elastic Act known as the “-War Regulations,” I will conclude by trusting that the electors will give this matter careful consideration, and not allow themselves to be hoodwinked by a mean minority, whose actions prove themselves to bo in entire opposition to that Divine injunction, “Do unto all inert as you would be done by.”—Yours, etc., JOHN R. INGRAM. [Portions of Mr Ingram’s letter have been excised.—Ed. “Mail.”]