Page 1 Advertisements Column 3

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 272, 9 April 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

A laudable attempt on the part of a Nottingham clergyman (says the London Daily Telegraph) to practically illustrate to the working-class portion of his flock the combined benefits: of religion and a tankard of beer has proved unsuccessful. The Rev. Prebendary Denison started, for the social pleasure of his congregation, a club where the reverend gentlemen or his curati went, after dispensing theological pabulum in the church, and served the members with beer and other corporeal refreshments. The idea was to keep them away from the public houses and to afford them honest recreation, with a reasonable amount of tipple. By the rules no man could be served with liquor more than three times during the night. But the clergyman was unaware of the degree, if not of original sin, at least of bibulous ingenuity among the rougher classes of Nottingham. They evaded the rule by clubbiDg together their twopeuces and treating each other, so that in the course of the evening a member was able to obtain half-a-dozen, or even more, driuks instead of three. The result was sometimes unpleasant, and the Prebendary has therefore reluctantly determined to give up the experiment.