Correspondence.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 20, 13 July 1899, Page 4

Correspondence.

- ■-■— ..Q "Coriespondents' opinions are not nee; sanly oms.

(TO XHJi EDITOR.) H i Sic, — In addressing that portion <fl the public represented by your readerM on the question oi prohibition oi sail of intoxicants, space is asked. Thfl favour is rather difiidently applied fotfl seeing that in many instances presiH columns on this bubjeot aie paid foil by the respective parties, and it apl pears as lr the press is becoming a paiilfl agency ior advertising opinions oafl public inattois as it is a paid agenejß tor advertising property to sell. &c,l We hope this tendency may not eiiectl the crushing oat the coirespondencel from feeble, non paying folk, \\\\M cannot pay, out peihaps can emcientljfl &cnbblo. You cannot tail to see howl largely in the near future looms thisl quebtJon ot prohibition, casting it» snadowb and brightness before it wuiiß more and moie intensity, as time for! polling " Licen.se " or "No License"! approaches, wiien by law the peoplel will be the JUI3 , and the electors unjl judges on the matter. In one of a eeiies ot articles in your local con ternpoiary of the Bth mbt., appears a p >.pei road by Miss o. WillaiotD agauibt the use ot ieiuiented wme at the Lord's table. This paper is largely if not fully quoted, and neatly hns the space allowed by your contempoiary to the anti prohibitionist champion m that issue. The autnor then pioceeds to addiebs himself '• exclusively to his own fellow members ot the Church ot Lngland.'^ You bee that it is the Canadian champion of anti-prohibition who mtioduces the question of ier- 1 mented — intoxicating wme versus un- 1 fermented — unmtoxicatnig wme ior I Sacramental purposes. "We are all alike committed to one line in this matter ;" says Rev. Mr Low ot Camv, da, •' That line waa drawn at the last_ pixmncial synod." (presumedly Canadian). At that synod all the delegates 1 believe, clerical and lay, abstainers and non-abbtainers alike unanimously passed Dr Carry's resolution pledging the whole chinch to follow the ancient customs and the Word of God m u&mg fermented wine." What effect does the wnter or quoter think this lesoldtion ot a provincial synod, BKLifcVLD to be unanimously earned, will pioduce in discussing the question ot piolnbition in JSew Zealand '? The question here is " License " or " NoLicense 1 ' for sale ot intoxicating liquor , in New Zealand and not the qucbuoii " use " or " non-use " as medicine for the bick, or as Sacramental wine. It io coitainly an evidence ot great fanness in iUr Low and his publisher, tine full quotation of Miss Wiimott's udmn- 1 able paper. In tact there is scarcely anything needing a reply from Prolnbuionibt side, in article otBth 111 st., and 1113 rather hdgetty quebtions and gloomy forefodings at close ot article indicate a subsiding position tor the side he advocates. There is no objection to his addressing himself to members of the Church ot England, but this is a veiy wide questiou, and Prohibitionists appaal to all sections of Chustian Churcij I and to all people. Have we not repiej seimng the lioman Church such ineq a,b Father Matthew, Hist public missionary of total abstinence to United Kingdom, United States, and Canada; the late Caidinal Manning, vice-pre&i-dent of United Kingdom Alliance; several Church dignitaries m America, anil the late Papal blessing on Temperance Societies in. Anaeiica '? The pies«ii«t Archbishop of Canterbury, Bi&hop' Wilbertorce, Dean Farrer, and other eminent men 1 in Anglican Church aie ad\ocates ior this total abstniencß principle, while th« growing majorities of ministers oi Presb^ tenan and non-contoimist sections ot the Chiihtian Churcji .show how this question is living and growing. These authorities are not here mentioned as arguments in favour of the natural and scientific truth ot total abstinence, but in reply jo Mr Low's appeal to people oi thg gnglish Church. — I am, etc.,