THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4070, 23 March 1892, Page 2

THE PROHIBITIONIST.

Pnblished bijthe courtesy of the Editor o) Wairarapa daily Times, under the awpices of the New Zealand Alliance for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, Masterton Amiliiry. When ratepayers demand, the entire ea> <Mic(ion of all places for the sale of ligtwrs; f/ieirprai/ers/wuW kgnrdtd; —Charles Buxton, Brewer; [Communications tor tins column must bo addressed to "Tho Prohibitionist," caro of Editor of ffAiRABAPA Daili Times,] . Testimonies as to the blessings of Prohibition in Mildura are multiplying. There is now no placu for the sale of liquor in the district, The club where liquor was obtainable terminated a brief existence at the end of last year. The reason for its demise is significant. Mr Chaffey had a controlling influence in ,it, He found that its members who availed themsolves of the "advantages " of card playing and drinking W6re getting backward in their monthly payments for land, and so, for purely commercial reasons, the club received the happy despatch, The present population of 'Mildura is about 1400. The Bev W.H.Evans, of Nhill, has just returned from a visit to the colony. In the course of a lecture on Mildura, the report of which occupies five columns in tho Nhill Free Press, he said:—" I saw not a loafer all the time I was there, neither did I see a drunken man, although I am not insane enough to say that there is no drinking there," Mr John Morley, in Parliament speaking in support of the Welch Direct Yeto on License Bill, said something has been said about landlords having the power to suppress the sale of drink at their own absolute will and pleasure, but he did not think the forco of this argument was fully understood by certain hon. members opposite, It had been pointed out that the Duke of Westminster said, in a speech quoted by the hon. member who moved the bill, that he bad suppressed 87 out of 48 licensed houses on his proporty, and he was loudly applauded for doing so, —(Hear, hear.) But did hon, mem» bers see the position in which they placed themselves by approving that action and yet objeoting to the bill ? —(Cheers). Their position whb this, that a landlord might abolish licensed houses on his. property, though the people who lived on it did not wish it; but the people themselves who did wish it were to be denied the opportunity,—(Cheers), He was aware that the introduction of referendum was a novelty, and ha was prepared to argue it on its own merits if this had been the proper occasion fordoing bo ; but this was not an occasion for a discussion as to whether or not it was well tQ refer back questions from the' legislature to tho electoral bodies, But it was worth while, perhaps, to point, out the success of this instrument for testing public opinion in Switzerland. The practice thereof submitting important issues of local government to the corrective votes of a particular canton was said to have taken root in the country, and no one thought of abolishing it. In one of the letters the late Cardinal Manning gives, this opinion on Temperance and total abstinence: —"Twenty years havo taught me that the great bar which in our days oloses the soul of man against the word of God and the Holy Sacrament is excess in intoxicating drink, and that tho surest discipline, both for the salvation of the intemperate and for the enncttßoation of the temperate is total abstinence. Temperance is good | total abstinence better, We are all pledged tq Temperance by the yows of our baptism, No oqe is bound to tptal abstinence. It is the free oholce of those who aspiro to live by tho counsel of a higher lifo, Happy are the homes where tho father and mother are pledged to the higher life, Happy are the childtcu who have never known the taste of intoxicating drink. Happy are they who, by total abstjnenpe, have broken the bondage of intemperanoe, Happy are they who havo taken the pledge, not for any need of their own, but to Bave otbera by words and example from spiritual death, In. such; homes and hearts the peace of God will reign," At a meetjng of Congregational ministers recently held in Memorial Hall, for a conference with Mr Ben Tillok pr}'Cofl'gregatipnftl(Bj)j and j,he wprk'ing cjasses;, Tlr toilet 'gayri the following as hjs opinion:—" That if it were possible for the Congregational eburohes to give one. Sunday in the month to,temperance and social questions, he believed it would rouse the working classes, The oburcb should identitVitou^^ 6 nomics which were consistent-with the brotherhood of man," The need of something of the same kind here is pressing, in order to bring" the iibjasaeß in touch with the churches.