PROVED BY HISTORY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3028, 27 October 1908, Page 5

PROVED BY HISTORY.

LIBERTY DEVELOPS MANHOOD. History proves that manhood develops wherever liberty is enjoyed, and degenerates in those countries* where it is unknown. The process k» either case is often slow, and results are marked not by years but by decades and generations. The British people for some hundreds of years have been striving to incorporate a greater freedom in their national life, and each successful effort has evolved a nobler type of manhood. The evolution to higher life has now reached the masses, and its ruling spirit is summed up in one word—"Freedom." Repression is only for criniiI nals. Liberty is the watchword of a free people. The Mohammedans, who are Prohibitionists, both by religion and practice, are the most backward in Europe; tneir manhood is dwafted; their spirit fanatical, narrow, intolerant, and cruel; their influence on civilisation almost nil. The comparison in national life is so obvious that che casual student cannot fail to be struck with it: Free Britain is infinitely superior to prohibition Turkey. Angle-Saxon marthood is immeasurably greater than the repressed, "prohibited," and very limited type which Moslemism shows to the world. When States and individuals are considered the conclusion is the same: Maine has had uolicense for nearly 60 years, and today it is the most drunken State in America—a fact which positively proves prohibitory laws to be de-> structive to a noble manhood. When no-license individuals are eaftuty considered, however well-meaning some are, no one with any discrimination would select them as tiie highest types of manhood, characteristic of high aims, great ideals, noble impulses, charity, reasonableness, and tolerance. They are usually bigoted and intolerant, and are not such stuff as makes a heaven on earth.

NO-LICENSE IS INDEED A. "BASTARD REFORM."-A recent writer in the Westminster "Review/' (May, 1908) compares Glasgow under "paltry, pettifogging a-.d legislative restrictions," with Sheffield, greatly to the disadvantage of Glasgow. t Drunkenness has greatly increased in Glasgow since the " temperancerestrictions" were jt»p§seci| fin the people, while smMi wMSL fe. Much freer, is'-also" mflrfi 6dtsr uf every way. Here, again, we have signal evidence that repressive action is* Ihe deadliest enemy to manhood. The writer says: "Parliament will commit a grave blunder if it converts England into a lawless, a sheheening, a drunken, and an exceptionally immoral England in the name of temperance reform." There can be no doubt that r.o-license would convert New Zealand into an immoral and drunken State, and sap the very foundations of its manhood, fhe merest study of human nature illustrates that good character is formed by aspiration and liberty, and destroyed by tyranny and repression. We go further and ask what are the foundations on which all true character rests, the answer is the Christian religion. This does not narrow the truth to one age or race,. It is as old as humanity, and embraces a]J history, Moses and Isaiah were giteafc" man,' but "they"-' were i Ihrlstittns before', Christ came, Socrates and , MardUS .AurfeliUs Were"' remarkable thinkers, 'but there is no writer to-day but will admit that all in them that was good was.essentially Christian. The Logos was everywhere present with those who sought the truth. But the final and authoritative guide for men are the Scriptures, and emphatically THE BIBLE OPPOSES NO LICENSE.

For let us ask what no-license means? The closing of every hotel, wholesale merchant; and bottle license. But that is not ail. If anyone wished liquor, then he would have to send to a license district to obtain it, and the merchant would have to send his name and address, describing both the nature and the quantity of liquor ordered. Any breach of this law would subject the person to a £2O penalty for the first offence, and to £SO for a second offence. But tyrannical as these provisions are, the fact that a man/a house may be raided by the police on ' suspicion, and if more liquor was found than they deemed to be a reasonable quantity, it would be prima facie evidence of being engaged in is not British but Russian law. And such is no-license. One has only to mention it to realise how fatal it is to manhood. By compelling men to be sneaks, hypocrites, untruthful dissemblers, it . would in the long run do mare to ( produce, intemperance and a low type of character than all other evils combined. Witness Maine with its drunkenness and divorce! If New Zealand's manhood is to grow ever nobler and stronger, New. Zealand's young men must not be trammelled by coercive and unnatural laws like nolicense. They must be free. Let them realise the responsibilities of liberty, and while they are surrounded "with blessings infinite upon infinite, and again multiplied by infinity, that God loves them; that God fills them with enjoyment," it is that in the greatness of a true, consecrated, and perfected manhood, "they are to serve God and enjoy Him for ever."*