Temperance Items

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 126, 9 November 1901, Page 1

Temperance Items

"(Published by 'arrangement.)

THE ANGLICAN SYNOD AND TH* LIQUOK QUESTION.

TO THE EDiTOTt. Sir,—The resolutions of this body affirming the'desirability of State <ft municipal owrierehip and management of the liqurtr traffic aie the outcome, not tit any real desire to grapple with the crili of the traffic, but of bitter hostility tb the no-license niovcuneflt. From the Bish »p down, almost all the speakers showed this more or less. The sjnofi has never touched the question without showing the same hostility, and, so far as I can remember, it has never yet Bb much as raised a linger to 'combat thb evils of drinking &ud drunkenness. Alone amongst alltheUhristian Churches, the Anglican Church in Olago occupies this bad eminence. It'is a pity !

Some of the statements reported daring the discussion in the synod can only b& described as the utterances of priestly arrogance. For instance, Dean Fitchett is reported as"B»yiug-: "No student oJ the New Testament could be a prohibrfcionist." Archdeacon Beaumont: "He could not conceive of any well-ittformed-, soundmiudvd Christian person being a prohibitionist." Bishop Navill (impliedly as indioiting the •' no license " " He would like to say that he had not yet found it possible touring his Creator to the bar of his puny intelligence ano! clulkv.ge the virtue of what He ha& cieated " Canon Dodd: •« There were throe classes of prohibitionists—thosa who had given way to drink and were afraid of it-; those whose families had been ruined by it; and political prohibftionists, who own ends uphold prohibition.

Do these revdrend gentlemen know the persons of whom they speak in these terms? Ido not wish to be misunderstood. Tue term "prohibitionist" it this Colony dees not mtan one who seekfc to prohibit the sale of liquor by legislation. No one in the colony wishes that* and I do not know of anyone elsewhere who does. It means a person wh6 believes that the people have the righfc to determine Dy their votes whether or not intoxicating liquor shall be sold, and that it is desirable to vote out the traffic &i soon as the majority of the electors are educated up to the point of doing so.

The Rev. T. J. Wills has w*ll said 1 : '" Only a reckless or shallow man would have the temerity to class the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dean Farrar, the Dean of Durham, the Dean of Wes>-« mir-ster, Canon Wilberforce, Canon Barker, "Canon Scott-Holland, Canon Hicka, Sir Wilfred Lawson, Mr T. P. Whiltaker, M.P., and all the New Zealand prohibitionists, including the Chief Justice, as "weak men, advocating " no license" for their own protection." And it is Eurely presumptuous arrogance to say of any of the dignitaries of the Church named above that they are not "students of the New Testament." They are.men with a world-wide reputation for scholaiship, to whom these critics could not hold a candle. AnS ' what shall we say of the late Bishop of Waiapu, of Dean Hovell (of Napierfc, of the Kev. T. J. Wills, Canon Webb, and many other clergymen of the Anglican Church of the colony? The vtv.cierat<>r of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand and the ministers of that Church are not in any respect inferior to the Anglican clergy in ijirning, or culture. And the great majority of them are advocates of "nd license." The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, Baptist, and other Protestan Churches contain amongst them scholarly m en—" students of the New Testament, and of human nature, too, —and they •■tand square, with scarce an exemption for "no license." i'et, says Deari Fitchett, '*' no student of the New Testa* ment can be a prohibitionist."

Bishop Nevili is fearful of the impiety" challenging the virtue of the works of God. But it is abautd to suggest tha't all the fluid creations of the Almighty were intended to be drunk by human beings. Moreover, modern intoxicating drink is no aingle product of creatiou; It is a product of art—-devilish. And surely the Bishop ought to know this. .£h" synod has definitely flung down the gage of battle. It has feiven forth t ■ the world its approval of the pro posala for Stata or municipal ownership and management of the liquor truffle' Archdeaconj Gould has been appoint a committee of one to start the movennnti which is to meet the prohibitioni tss and fight for the freedom of every txmA to drink. With splendid courage the Archdeacon has accepted the oflnft imposed upon him. I cannot say th,-t 1 wish him succesi, for Ido not think t 6 possible. The Russian according to Dr Borodin*, the pxeaidenc cf the Scientific Commission of tire Sh Petersburg Association of it a failure. The Gothenburg system it a failure. The people in this colonywr.il not consent to pay the price for ad experiment here,. I fear the • only orffee! of the new movement may be to retard true "tform.—l am* ete., Autxs. 8. Abah*. Otago Daily Times.