COMPENSATION COMMON HONESTY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 11 July 1910, Page 3

COMPENSATION COMMON HONESTY

I To the Editor. Sir, — Your "Safety" corresponuent .makes a mistake in classing l uie with socialists and supposing I would like to ■take their property from Prohibitionists. I So far from this being the case, i be-' lieve both systems to be developments of anti-Christ in wnieli' the Evil One comes as an angel oi light calculated to deceive even the elect. They are equal- i ly aWiorrent to me as being alike con-1 trary to the teachings of revelation a:id the spirit of Christ. I gave you a quotation from John Stuart Mill as to the dishonesty of making one particular class suffer a loss because public opinion may change on a given subject, and I asked how the Prohibitionist would be able to logically withstand the nationalisation of all property—mine as well as theirs—if t'liey establish a precedent by! first confiscating the livelihood and pro- j pea'tv of those in the liquor trade with-j out due compensation. To rail at this. class in the terms "Safety" uses is be-i side the mark. In the first place <ul» views and that of 'his party are mot, only opposed to that of many others wlio, like myself, think them founded largely on mistaken ideas, but they runl counter, as Mill says, to legislation which I has "existed from a very early period of j history with general approval" If the: public changes its mind, common honesty! and the teachings of Christ demand cliat this change should be made at puolic expense. The plea that the trade is bad or wicked does not cover the ground,; for we are taught that it is a damnable sin to do evil that good may come. It was not this that slavery was wiped out in British possessions. Every honest man who has not allowed his sense of right to be overclouded by the fanaticism of this anti-Christian propaganda J. will agree with the late W. E. Gladstone when he says: "The licensed victualler has the same right to fair consideration ' that is enjoyed by persons every other trade or calling which :iis-tin-. f tenfered with by Act of Parliament, and :• to whom compensation is to such interference. We must -not al-. low any political feeling or prejudice.' to; interfere with the rectitude of i.-oilp judgment, or to prevent us giving the same measure of justice or indulgence to licensed victuallers that we should give to any other class in the ity" Insomuch as our Local Option Actinjures these simple, truths, it is an unjust and tyrannical measure. It was doubtless from a sense of this fact that Parliament decided that it should, not take effect on a mere majority vote.--I am., etc. B. ENROTH.