THE NO-LICENSE QUESTION.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43388, 22 October 1908, Page 3

THE NO-LICENSE QUESTION.

Sir, —A letter appears over the signatuse of L. M. Isitt, in your Saturday’s paper, and judging by its tone somebody has stamped hard on the corns of the High Priest of No-License. "With the first part of his letter I have no concern but his statements about Father Matthew and the drunkenness in Ireland I wish to say a little about. Father Matthew did not in any works on his life that I have read, ever wish to invoke legislative aid to suppress drinking. Right up to the day' he died he taught that “ Alcoholic stimulants are not only unnecessary, as a rule, but injurious to the human being, that drunkenness is an odious and disgusting vice, that the man who abstains is safer than the man who is moderate in his enjoyment of that which is so full of risk and danger and that there is no possible safety for those liable to excess and unable to resist temptation save in total abstinence ; but that there is redemption social, moral, and physical to be found in the pledge for the most confirmed and abandoned drunkard.” L. M. Isitt states that ‘ Ireland is as drunk as ever.” He male? this statement (1) either through ignoranee, or (2) a malicious intention. Does he mean to say Irelond is as drunk to-day as in 1801, or even in 1845, or even 1880 ? Does he dare say it Y I fling his statement back into his teeth ! I have been through a great part of Ireland and it is as temperate a country as any I know. It seems to be the policy of Mr Isitt to make out every country is drunken, but people who travel and read know better than this. Cardinal Logne speaking at Armagh last March said among other things : “ To-day Ireland is in the main a sober country. There is an improved moral tone of Society. Formerly drunkenness was regarded rather as a fault for which there were numberless excuses ; now drunkenness is looked upon as a degrading vice. Formerly, that is up to the middle of the last century, it was considered the right thing to get drunk after dinner. Now there is no excuse for the man who does so. Formerly there was not a circumstance in the iife of an Irishman but was the legitimate excuse for a carousal. A birth, a christening, a wedding, a wake, a faction fight, an election were all fine excuses for intemperance. Happily those days are gone, and let us hope to God, gone for ever. The lessons taught by the sainted Father Matthew, have borne fruit in our day, and the finger of scorn can no longer be raised to Ireland as a drunken country.” Now, Mr Isitt, what have you to say to this ; do you know more about the state of society in Ireland than Cardinal Logue. Mr Isitt, weigh up your own deeds in the cause of temperance, compare your life with the life of Father Matthew and think if it is likely that the following words will be written of you when you are dead as they were of Ireland’s Apostle of Temperance.—“ On Friday, 12th December, 1856, Cork poured out its masses in the streets to pay the last tribute of respect to the memoiy of its great cit izen, and through a living mass the funeral cortege, extending nearly two miles in length wound its slow and solemn way. Every class, every rank, every party, every creed, had its full representation in that sad procession which was closed by the truest mourners of all the poor. It was computed that 50,000 mourners followed his remains to the cemetery where the Catholic Bishop and 70 priests received the body. As his body was lowered into the grave a wail of sorrow broke from the crowd telling how deep was the feeling which the people bore for one they had reason to love. A few weeks after this a meeting was held in the Courthouse, Cork, to consider the most appropriate means of paying a tribute of respect to his memory. The meeting was a happy fusion of class, of party and of Creed. The Protestant and DisIsenter vied with the Catholic in the

eloquent expressions of affection for the man, and veneration for his character, of sorrow for his loss and of pride in his citizenship. It was resolved that a statue of Father Matthew should be erected in one of the public thoroughfares. The services of Foley (Sculptor) | were obtained, and on 10th October, 1864 the statue was unveiled to the delighted gaze of 100,000 people,” Study the life of Father Matthew, Mr Isitt, and then you may have more success as a temperance reformer, and you will not be so likely lo make rash, yes I will let you off with rash statements, I could use a stronger word, but I like to be temperate in my language.—l am, etc., A Total Abstainer and an Irishman.