DR. CROSSLEY ON PROHIBITION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 104, 23 October 1911, Page 4

DR. CROSSLEY ON PROHIBITION

"I WILL NOT BE PRECIPITATED." Auckland, October 20. In his first address to the Anglican Synod of the Diocese of Auckland, Bishop Crossley made a hrief reference to tile prohibition question. He said: "I am sensitive 011 the subject of liberty. Tile notable reaction in the i>tatt of Maine, generally quoted as the ideal (prohibition iState, 011 the subject af prohibition you have all recently observed. I have talked with many men 011 this subject, and read, so far as I could, both sides, and so far as 1 have gone 1 an* unconvinced. The dangers to national character are subtle, and, I think, are real, I am not deterred from this, my personal state of mind, by the cheap retort that the dangers of drunkenness are still more real. I am deeply sensible to those dangers, and quite ready to make even a big experiment to avert them. I acknowledge with sadness the fact—of course, it may be accidental —that I have seen more drunken persons in New Zealand since I came than I saw in all my six years in Melbourne. At the same time' I will not lie precipitated into n. line of action, the ultimate wisdom of which I am as yet unconvinced of. I have not observed in New Zealand any constructive policy like that of the British Public House Company. Have wo really exhausted our remedies yet!"