COPY OF LETTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10120, 15 October 1910, Page 6

COPY OF LETTER.

The first Plenary Council of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada was held at Quebec last year, beginning on November 19th, and ending ""on December Ist, 1909. ■ Following it, a pastoral letter was issued, addressed to the clergy and laity throughout the Dominion, and embodying a great deal of counsel and instruction relating to different matters. One of the subjects discussed was the Temperance question, and that part of this letter we have pleasure in reprinting for the information of our readers.' .ii> reads thus:—

Among the social evils which have already wrought untold harm in our country, we wish to specially single out that of intemperance. Few are the vices more prolific in destructiveness than it is; none there are that open more surely and more rapidly the way to every abasement, physical, intellectual, and moral. Alcohol is a poison whose awful property it is to attack at the same time both soul and body, of which it paralyses every energy and dries up every life spring. ,The gross, insatiable and abnormal appetite that it develops in the senses is one of the most degrading and the mose hopeless passions known to men. Its victims are an object of scandal and horror to society, until at last they go to swell the list of those who fill up hospitals and insane asylums."

An already Jong-standing and everrenewed experience shows us the fate of wealth when made subservient to tliis all-absorbing passion; it shows us, too, how the wages of the working man, instead of bringing to the home the daily bread and the modest comforts it requires, are often wasted on the way, to fall into the hands of the genial tavern-keeper, who sells for that paltry gain the dishonour of the husband and father, and the misery and shame of the wife and children. An examination of statistics reveals to us an annual expenditure in our country for intoxicating drink of more than one hundred million dollars. Now, the

bulk of this sum represents the fund that goes to support vice, while squandering the treasures of physical strength and intellectual and moral vigour with which God has so abundantly endowed our people. The Church, therefore, is not giv*

ing way to visionary fears, in calling upon her children, and in banding them together beneath the standard of the Cross, to organise an energetic campaign against one of the most dangerous enemies of religion

and country. In this she stands faithful to her office and to her traditions. The war against tho scourge of intemperance goes back to the very beginning of our country. When the traffic in strong drink threatened to destroy the new-born . civilisation on our shores, one man boldly took a stand against the 1 greedy traders, encouraged though they were by the more or less open support of those in power; that man j was our illustrious first Bishop. Monseigneur de Laval. In the exciting struggle that then took place, the conflicting parties of which now appear to us in full light of history, the nobler part is on the side of the valiant apostle of Temperance. He it was who acted the true patriot and the far-seeing champion of the interest, both material and religious, J of the infant colony. Successors of this great Bishop, we feel it our duty to continue to-day the emsade of which he was here the feat'jfi§.s initiator. Following this (ixample, we would deliver our peo»1« fi-Qjn'the ever-abiding peril of Iti'Qjjg drink.. We firmly trust that our enclevaours ivill not bo j" vain. Already very consider amS Results ] have been attained, and everything | j nc linos us to hope that they \\i\\ foe | lasting. ''','"' ,1 I Almost eve)ywliere tile' civil authorities have givell their weighty co-operation, and have devoted them- J selves lit ft truly Christian spirit to the checking of this plague. It has above all been realised that the evil should be attacked at its source—namely, that the traffic in intoxicating liquors should oe suppressed, or where that is not possible, at least I restricted and more severely controlled, and that legislation should be enacted on the point, tending to restrain vice and render easier the task of good citizens in. averting danger and putting a stop to disorder. We most heartily congratulate all those who have laboured in this cause of social uplifting; Ave encourage them to persevere in their noble endeavours, and to extend their zeal to every undertaking tending to the preservation of moral healthfulness.