THE LICENSING QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 197, 29 November 1910, Page 3

THE LICENSING QUESTION.

To tae Editor. I Sir, —As one who, though not a Pres- • bvterian, regards the Rev. rf. IS. Osborne us one of the most devoted and consistent ministers of religion who liave been stationed in Taranaki, I venture to express the hope that he will not accept the challenge of Mr. E. Bishop which appeared in yesterday morning's News. To do this would simply mean a wrangle with bigots whom 110 amount of argument would convince and who place Prohibition (big P. please) in front of everything else. In his life and work among us, Mr. Osborne has won the esteem of the New Plymouth community, and his pulpit utterances have ever been sincere and expressive of honest conviction. Mr. Bishop and his fellow zealots who now prate about the "unassailable vantage ground of the pulpit" would be the first to object if a minister of their extreme views were called to account for airing his opinions in the same fearless manner from the pulpit of St. Andrew's. Not very long ago, the Rev. Mr. Osborne came to me and said he would take it as a personal favor if I could give or influence some employment to one of his flock who was having hard times. I could not help thinking then how few clergymen woulu have taken such a warm interest in the welfare of a parishioner. Mr. Osborne's attitude on the temperance question has always been consistent, and it is wellknown that he has for many years been a total abstainer, though not a believer in prohibition.—l am, etc., TEETOTALLER. (One of the old fashioned so(t.) New Plymouth, Nov. 28.