TO-MORROW’S DUTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1922, Page 7

TO-MORROW’S DUTY.

-IN OPPORTUNITY AND A CHALLENGE. Cit/zens, —We stand on the eve of a momentous day. To-morrow the ballot box will decide. The right to vote is one of the greatest privilege's of citizenship. To win that, right, blood has flowed like rivers, and tears have been too eiiPii i to count. Not to vote is to act the pan of the. unfaithful servant who hid. his talent in the earth and made no use of it. To vote corruptly is felony;

it is to appropriate to our own purposes what we have received as trustees for the town oj’ the Dominion. We are responsible to God for the way we discharge this citizen duty. The obligation of the Parliamentary franchise cannot he evaded. But an elector who uses his vote to promote private and selfish ends, instead of the interests of the nation, is guilty of flagrant moral offence; he is as guilty a solicitor who uses for his own purposes the money he has received to invest for a client. Refuse to heed the appeals addressed to passion and prejudice by wealthy combines who care more for property than manhood, and more for dividends than national honor.

Of the purely party aspect of the election, we say nothing. We have ardent friends, and bitter enemies, in the ranks of “Reform” and “Liberal” and “Labor.” Moral issues are more thnn .party attachments, and ours is a moral issue. The greatest single question before the Dominion is not which political party shall sit on the Government benches. The greatest question before the electors is whether the liquor traffic, with all its train of misery and wreckage, shall continue in New Zealand.

WE APPEAL IXI YOUR REASON. Face the facta. Never in the history of reform were stubborn facte more clear and abundant than in the case of Prohibition. The business world has declared against the Trade with endless statistics. From halls of science, from the councils of doctors, from the Judicial bench, from prisons, asylums and hospitals, the voice is one. Everywhere the facte are against the drink traffic.

WE APPEAL TO YOUR CONSCIENCE. You may be strong and able to resist; but what of the weak who cannot? Does it matter nothing at all to you that he is facing deadly risks, because of weakness you do not feel? Will you rai.;e r. hand to lift him up, or will you leave him to struggle and go :under? Are his children, your children, the world’s children, to keep- on struggling with this age-old deadly enemy, or will you, by your vote, help to make the world a cleaner, safer place?

WE APPEAL TO YOUR CHIVALRY. Can you not make a small sacrifice? Bethink you! Never yet was victory gained without sacrifice. 'Never in the world’s long story have the gates of freedom opened save at the storming of men of high courage, who were willing to suffer and die if needs bo. “It needs a soul to lift a soul e’en to a cleaner Sty.” Act your noblest; be your beat.

“To every man there openeth A way, and ways, ajid a way, And the high soul climbs the High Way, And the low soul gropes the Low, And in between, on the misty flats. The rest drift to and fro. But to every man there openeth A High Way and a Low, And every man decideth The way his soul shall go.” Together let us take the high way. WE APPEAL TO YOUR MORAL SENSE. Bishop Averill rightly said: “As Christian men and women we cannot lay aside our religion when we go to vote. We have to record our vote on proposals designed to mitigate the evils resulting from the abuse of Intoxicating liquors. It is not for me to tell you how tq vote, but it is my duty to tell you that you cannot divest yourselves of the great responsibility for the vote you cast, and that you cannot forget God and your neighbor when you record your vote. The highest principles ot God roust not be allowed to become over-ridden. Remember this week the words of Gladstone, who said: ‘Whatever is morally wrong cannot be politically right,’ and beware of that false principle, ‘my country right or .wrong.’ Beware of- it, because it is often interpreted to mean ‘my party right or wrong.’ ” In a few short years, at most, all our angry hearts will be quiet in death, but those who come after us will live in a world which our sins have blighted, or which our love of right has redeemed. Let us do our thinking on this great question, not with our eye on personal rights and personal gain, but with a wise outlook on the fields of the future, and with the consciousness that the Spirit of the Eternal ie seeking to distil from our lives some essence of righteousness, ere we pass to the Great Audit.

(Published by the Taranaki Prohibition Council.)