PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 189, 31 January 1877, Page 2

PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD.

At a recent meeting of the Presbyterian Synod of Otago, a debate took place on the report of the Temperance Committee of the Synod of Otago and Southland. The report stated that there were 479 public-houses in Otago, or one to every 187 inhabitants. It estimated the annual expenditure in New Zealand on imported intoxicating liquors at £1,800,000, and on beers made in colony at £120,000. The report recommended that licenses for the sale of liquor at races and sports should he stopped ;that legislation should be directed to limiting the number of licenses to a certain ratio of population ; that efforts should be made to do away with the bar trade in hotels; that ministers and members be recommended to discountenance the use of intoxicating drinks, and that sermons should he delivered to advocate Temperance. Several ministers spoke of the obstruction which intemperance caused to ministerial success. Professor Salmond took exception to the term “ Temperance 11-port,” and suggested that “ Total Abstinence” would be more appropriate. The .Rev. Stoho pointed out that four fifths of the ministers of the church were abstainers. A Mr dames Adam, however, astonished the Synod hy stating that his father, who drank {Scotch whiskey every day of his life, and who enjoyed the best of health up to the last, lived to the ripe age of 86. Notwithstanding this, the report was adopted.